Prime Minister Keir Starmer has suspended four Labour MPs following their defiance of the party line on welfare reforms, marking a fresh crackdown on internal dissent within the party.
Neil Duncan-Jordan, Chris Hinchliff, Brian Leishman and Rachael Maskell were suspended on Wednesday, July 16, after meeting with the Chief Whip, PoliticsHome has learned. In addition, Labour MPs Rosena Allin Khan, Bell Ribeiro-Addy, and Mohammed Yasin were stripped of their roles as trade envoys.
According to Labour sources, the suspensions were due to repeated breaches of party discipline and will remain in place pending a future review.
The disciplinary actions follow a recent rebellion in which more than 40 Labour MPs, including the four suspended lawmakers, voted against the government’s welfare reforms earlier this month. Maskell, MP for York Central, had moved a reasoned amendment aimed at defeating the reforms entirely.
Labour previously faced significant internal pressure over the government’s proposed changes to disability and welfare benefits. In June, threats of a wider rebellion pushed the government to scale back its plans.
Speaking to PoliticsHome after his suspension, Duncan-Jordan, MP for Poole, reaffirmed his loyalty to the party’s core principles while defending his decision to oppose the reforms.
“Since being elected, I have consistently spoken up for my constituents on a range of issues, including most recently on cuts to disability benefits. I understood this could come at a cost, but I couldn’t support making disabled people poorer,” he said.
“Although I’ve been suspended from the Parliamentary Labour Party today, I’ve been part of the Labour and trade union movement for 40 years and remain as committed as ever to its values.
“To my constituents: it’s business as usual. I remain your hardworking local MP, I will continue to take up your concerns and speak up for Poole.”
One Labour source told The Times the MPs were suspended for “persistent knobheadery.” A loyalist MP told PoliticsHome, “This isn’t about criticism. This is tiresome dickheadery, as someone has already said. The story is what these individuals have done. The government is right to respond, indeed had to.”
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