The removal of the whip from these four MPs is a bold, or brave, move from the Prime Minister. Very brave indeed at a time when the Labour party is losing votes to the left more than to the right; at a time when comrade Jeremy is thinking about his new party. And looking at that, you’ve got to be very, very careful about the left now to defend the government on this.
When government sources accused these MPs of “persistent knobheadery,” the persistent part of it certainly has some validity. I was discussing it all with Brian Leishman, who’s a very vocal critic of Keir Starmer, and he said he thought he had rebelled against the government on serious issues at least twelve times. Now, that’s a lot.
And there comes a point – and it’s not just about walking through the wrong voting lobby – it’s when MPs are criticising Starmer and the Cabinet, accusing them of betraying this and betraying that, in public, in the media, again and again and again. There comes a point when they are no longer behaving like Labour MPs, and therefore, taking the whip away from them is not that unreasonable.
I do think there’s a slight element of cowardice in this, in that they haven’t gone after the most powerful and widely liked critics. They haven’t targeted Meg Hillier, who’s been so important in the benefits revolt. Apart from Diane Abbott, they haven’t gone for the people who would really cause them trouble in the media. These are mostly lesser-known figures, and in some cases, not particularly popular even within their own groups.
The timing is odd. And we still don’t know whether there’s a reshuffle coming. But these are people who will go back and bond with their constituency parties over the summer. And I don’t think many of them are going to return in the autumn promising the whips that they’ll stop rebelling.
I asked Brian Leishman, “Are you going to stop? If the Chief Whips say, ‘Brian, all you need to do is promise that you’ll stop rebelling against this government,’ what would you say?”
He said, “No, I couldn’t possibly say that.”
Andrew Marr was speaking earlier on the New Statesman podcast. Watch the full exchange below.
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