Starmer suspends seven MPs who rebelled against cap on two-child benefit

Keir Starmer On Tuesday, he surprisingly suspended a handful of Labour MPs following a vote in the House of Commons, less than a month after taking office as prime minister.

Last night, MPs were asked to consider changing the Speech of the King from that SNP – Scottish National Party – which called on the government to abolish the controversial cap on the two-child benefit ratio.

This rule, which prevents parents from claiming benefits for their third child, dates back to the Conservative government in 2017, but the Labour Party is reluctant to drop it because of the costs involved.

Starmer therefore took a remarkably tough line, suspending Zarah Sultana, Richard Burgon, former shadow chancellor John McDonnell, Imran Hussain, Apsana Begum, former business minister Rebecca Long-Bailey and Ian Byrne for six months.

The unexpectedly harsh punishment of some left-wing party representatives will be reviewed after this period.

Labour’s Nadia Whittome, who abstained, sharply criticised the suspension, saying: “The government’s handling of party discipline is appalling. No MP should have been disenfranchised for voting tonight, particularly on a policy that almost everyone in the Labour Party opposes.”

“Our party has a large majority. If it wants to govern from a position of strength, it must be able to tolerate differences of opinion without making threats and applying the harshest punishments.”

After her rebellion, Sultana told the House of Commons: “I will always stand up for the weakest in society.”

She later told the Today show that she did not know she would be expelled from the party if she voted for the change, claiming she was the victim of a “macho virility test.”

The backbenchers’ action came after the former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, who is now running as an independent, urged Labour MPs to “stay true to your principles and stand up for what you know is right”.

Former Labour Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbottwrote on X: “For personal reasons I was unable to be in Westminster this evening to vote against the two-child benefit cap.

“But I am appalled that colleagues are being suspended for six months for voting against it, even though lifting the cap is supposedly party policy.”

Starmer has come under pressure from across Parliament over this policy. Tory MP and former Home Secretary Suella Braverman and the chairman of Reform UK Nigel Farage calls for this decision to be dropped.

The Liberal Democrats, Greens, Plaid Cymru, SDLP, Alliance Party and independent MPs also supported the amendment.

The charity Action for Children also described the cap as “cruel” – 1.6 million children are currently affected.

Despite the rebellion, it was a successful evening for Starmer as he won the first official election of his party leader by 363 votes to 103, achieving a majority of 260 votes.

Liz Kendall, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, said yesterday that the Government must first “do the math” before deciding to reduce the benefit cap.

Likewise Chancellor Rachel Reeves warned at the weekend that lifting the cap would cost more than three billion pounds a year.

She said the government could not act until it knew “where the money was going to come from.”

Education Minister Bridget Phillipson caused confusion by saying that the Labour Party would “consider” dropping this policy in the future.

Starmer himself had stated in 2023 that the cap should be abolished, but changed his mind after examining Britain’s economic problems.

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