As he prepares for his first questioning at the PMQs, Keir Starmer is already finding it difficult to control the enraged labour infighting.
Just two weeks after securing his historic victory, Sir Keir will face criticism from the dispatch box after being thwarted by seven MPs in a vote on the two-child benefit cap.
However, the harsh action taken by the premier to suspend the group, which included well-known left-wingers John McDonnell, Richard Burgon, and Rebecca Long-Bailey, caused a stir within his own party.
One of the rebels put on ice for six months, Zara Sultana, suggested this morning that Sir Keir had treated the situation like a ‘macho virility test’. She declared she had ‘slept well’ after voting to scrap the limits on handouts for big families.
A Corbynite campaign group branded him ‘Sir Kid Starver’ on social media, while even supporters warned that he is sitting on a ‘timebomb’.
Despite ministers hinting that they will move to ditch the two-child cap as soon as possible, a further 40 Labour MPs abstained on a King’s Speech amendment tabled by the SNP.
The result was never in doubt, as the Commons voted 363 to 103, a majority of 260, to reject the amendment, with Sir Keir holding a sizable working majority of about 180.
Permission will have been granted to some of those who missed the division, but others are believed to have purposefully avoided participating.
Ms Sultana told ITV’s Good Morning Britain that she did not regret her decision.
‘I slept well knowing that I took a stand against child poverty that is affecting 4.3 million people in this country and it is the right thing to do and I am glad I did it,’ she said.
She said she saw the email on the way home from the vote last night saying she had had the whip removed.
‘I look forward to many bills that will be coming forward in this government, including nationalising rail, the new deal for working people, but I was also very honest that we should go further; we can make a real difference to people’s lives,’ she said.
‘And when you’ve got anti-charity campaigners, think tanks and trade unions saying that the key driver for child poverty in this country, which is the sixth largest economy in the world, is the Tories’ two-child benefit cap, then it is a moral imperative on the Labour Party to scrap that and do everything that they can to make sure that not a single child has to live in unnecessary hardship and poverty.’
Asked on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme for her view on Sir Keir, Ms Sultana said: ‘I’m not interested in playing up to this macho virility test that seems to be what people are talking about. It’s about the material conditions of 330,000 children living in poverty.’
Pressed on whether she meant Sir Keir had viewed the situation as a macho test, Ms Sultana said: ‘This isn’t a game; this is about people’s lives.’
One Labour MP told Politico they were worried about the ruthlessness of the response, saying it was ‘not a good timebomb to be too casual about, whatever your mandate looks like now’.
Former shadow home secretary Diane Abbott said she could not vote for ‘personal reasons’, but was ‘horrified’ at the action taken against the rebels.
Speaking ahead of the vote, Mr McDonnell, who was shadow chancellor under Jeremy Corbyn, confirmed he would back the SNP’s amendment.
He said, ‘I was in Parliament in 2015 when it [the cap] was introduced, and I condemned it and voted against it then. It’s really iniquitous; it’s forced large numbers of children into poverty and caused real hardship.
‘I don’t like voting for other parties’ amendments but I’m following Keir Starmer’s example, as he said, put country before party.
‘So I’m putting lifting children out of poverty before party whipping. 120 different organisations have called for the scrapping of the two-child limit, and they comprise of community groups, religious groups, churches, trade unions, and many in my own community.
‘I think it’s a dreadful measure that the Conservatives introduced and we could lift anywhere up to 400,000 children out of poverty just by this one measure.’
In the end, he was joined in rebelling by Apsana Begum, Richard Burgon, Ian Byrne, Imran Hussain, Rebecca Long-Bailey, and Zarah Sultana.
These days, the majority of families are made up of immigrants, and the patriarch and their respective religions force them to have children. If this is the case, then their patriarch and religious leaders should pay for those children.
But then you have other scenarios such as life changes, divorce, widowhood, redundancy, life-changing injury or even illness. None of us can foresee the future, but our government are allowing children to suffer.
Parties that compete for power often make promises to the populace that they will carry out, even though they never plan to. The public is duped, and Keir Starmer succeeded in tricking them by appearing reasonable for a while to gain power.
THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO 