How Labour plans to pin its tax bombshell on the Tories

A parliamentary showdown between Keir Starmer and Labour’s band of left-wing MPs was inevitable – though it wasn’t expected quite so soon.

- ANDREW GRICE

The prime minister was always going to deal with their revolt ruthlessly, as he did by suspending the seven MPs who backed an SNP amendment calling for the two-child benefit limit to be scrapped.

If the MPs had rebelled in a debate staged by the SNP, they might have got off with a warning from the whips. But voting against the government on the King’s Speech is seen by the Labour leadership as one of the three cardinal parliamentary sins, the second and third being to vote against the government on a Budget or an issue of confidence.

Starmer didn’t pick this early fight – it wasn’t in his “first 100 days” script to hit the proverbial ground running – but his action sent a message to Labour MPs tempted to rebel on other issues, and a message to the public that he will not be pushed around by the left.

The two-child cap was symbolic in the election campaign, illustrating Labour’s “no unfunded promises” rule, and is still symbolic now. The reality is that no Labour MP, including the cabinet, really wants to keep it. But doing nothing about the cap is a decision, too, as it will push more children into poverty: 670,000 would be affected by the end of the five-year parliament, with low-income families typically denied an extra £3,500 a year in universal credit for every extra child.