Labour in chaos as dozens of its MPs rebel over welfare reform
LABOUR was in chaos last night after dozens of MPs defied Harriet Harman on welfare reform.
The party’s interim leader had urged her MPs to abstain in the vote on the Government’s controversial cuts to tax credits and other handouts.
But last night around 50 Labour MPs voted against the Welfare Reform and Work Bill.
Left-wing leadership candidate Jeremy Corbyn had urged MPs to oppose the Bill, while the three other hopefuls said they should obey Miss Harman and abstain.
Andy Burnham made a last minute U-turn on the issue yesterday, telling his supporters not to vote against the Government’s welfare reforms, despite having criticised them for a week.
But a sizeable minority of Labour’s MPs decided to take the Corbyn position – despite polls showing Labour voters support the Government’s changes.
The size of the rebellion will add to fears Labour may have tacked Left since the election. The latest figures show that Mr Corbyn now has the support of more l ocal Labour branches t han t he more centrist Mr Burnham.
In the five-hour Commons debate last night, Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith accused Labour MPs of failing to wean themselves off an ‘addiction to pay debt’ with other people’s cash.
He claimed some in the party had failed to learn from its ‘mistakes’ made in government over proposed tax credit reforms.
Shadow work and pensions secretary Stephen Timms said Labour would table amendments to tackle ‘unfairness’ in some of the proposals.
‘We support a number of measures in the Bill,’ he said. ‘We are committed to a cap on household benefits … But this Bill does some very bad things as well. It abolishes the duty of government to tackle or even to report on child poverty.’
Before the vote, only six MPs put their name to Miss Harman’s amendment, which accepted some of the Tory reforms. A quarter of Labour MPs had defied her by signing up to a rival amendment, proposed by backbencher Helen Goodman.
Last week, a source in Mr Burnham’s campaign reportedly said Miss Harman’s stance on the Bill was ‘ridiculous’. Mr Burnham said last month: ‘If this chancellor thinks it is acceptable to … come after the tax credits of people on low incomes in work, he is going to have a fight on his hands.’
But writing to Labour MPs yesterday, he said: ‘Collective responsibility is important … It is why I will be voting for our reasoned amendment [Miss Harman’s] and if it is defeated abstaining.’