Left wing MP Richard Burgon has said the Labour Party leadership needs to “listen to the party members” on issues including the two-child cap, the winter fuel allowance and Gaza.
Speaking before a Campaign for Labour Party Democracy fringe event at this year’s Labour Party Conference, the Leeds East MP acknowledged the government had made a “positive start” on issues including workers’ rights, renters’ rights and railway nationalisation while urging against a return to austerity.
Burgon lost the Labour whip in July along with six other MPs after voting in favour of an SNP-tabled King’s Speech amendment urging the two-child benefit limit to be abolished.
He said: “If you look through our history, whenever the leadership in government or in opposition, has got it wrong, if it listened to the party members, perhaps it wouldn’t have.
“Whether that be on Iraq, whether it be on PFI, whether it be on that 75 pence increase in the pension, whether it be – I’m afraid – of the two-child limit, whether it be – I’m afraid – on the winter fuel allowance, whether it be taking so long to support a ceasefire in Gaza.”
The two-child cap and winter fuel allowance have been topics of heated debate since the party’s return to government this summer – with votes on both issues seeing both open rebellion and quieter disgruntlement in the Labour ranks.
Keir Starmer has indicated previously he is open to scrapping the two-child benefit limit – a policy which critics say pushes families into poverty – but Rachel Reeves has also warned there would be no “unfunded” pledge to remove it.
The Prime Minister has defended means-testing the winter fuel allowance as a necessary “unpopular” measure to deal with the fiscal black hole, despite concerns over its impact on poorer pensioners.
Burgon added: “I don’t want to see the party take the choice to continue the failed economic orthodoxy of the last 14 years, or indeed the failed economic orthodoxy that’s ruled the roost since 1979. We must make sure that we don’t pursue a policy of austerity.
“Austerity is always a political choice, not an economic necessity, especially in this one of the richest economies on Earth, and that’s why I was one of the MPs who voted against the cut to winter fuel allowance, because pensioners in my constituency asked me to vote that way.”
The other six MPs who lost the whip in July alongside Burgon were Apsana Begum, Ian Byrne, Imran Hussain, Rebecca Long-Bailey, John McDonnell and Zarah Sultana – with their position set to be reviewed six months later.
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