Why is Keir Starmer being hailed for keeping children in poverty?
Why is Keir Starmer being hailed for keeping children in poverty? That’s what his victory over the two-child benefit cap means.
Labour was never going to lose the vote on an SNP amendment to the King’s Speech, calling for the cap on child benefit to be lifted because it has put around 300,000 children into poverty since it was imposed in 2017.
Starmer told his MPs they would lose the Labour whip for six months if they didn’t vote as they were told – and most of them fell in line like good little sheep. The amendment fell by a margin of 363 to 103.
Only seven dared to vote with their conscience – and paid the price:
🚨 BREAKING: Labour has suspended the following MPs after they voted for the SNP amendment to scrap the two-child benefit cap
– Apsana Begum
– Imran Hussain
– Rebecca Long Bailey
– Ian Byrne
– Richard Burgon
– Zarah Sultana
– John McDonnell— Politics UK (@PolitlcsUK) July 23, 2024
It would have been eight – but Diane Abbott was absent:
Personal reasons meant I could not be in Westminster this evening to vote against the 2 child benefit cap. But horrified colleagues suspended for 6 months for voting against, when removing the cap is supposed to be party policy pic.twitter.com/1wLW37H2WD
— Diane Abbott (@HackneyAbbott) July 23, 2024
How ironic that, weeks after a previous suspension was lifted, she would have been willing to undergo that whole process again. It’s an admirable display of principle.
And Starmer?
A friend of This Site, Simon Maginn, summed him up on X:
“He thinks this makes him ‘look tough’, but of course it does the opposite. It’s the petty, vindictive act of a thin-skinned narcissist who can’t tolerate dissent or debate. Meanwhile, the children remain hungry.”
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Starmer’s failure to get rid of Abbott was one of number of highlights of the last general election.
The failure to defeat Corbyn is another obvious one.