Sir Keir Starmer has faced his first Labour rebellion just two weeks after being elected during a vote on child benefits in the House of Commons tonight.
The new prime minister saw seven of his own MPs defy the party whip to vote for an SNP amendment which would have scrapped the two-child benefit cap.
The group was made up of prominent figures from the left-wing of the party, including former key Corbynites John McDonnell, Richard Burgon and Rebecca Long Bailey.
The retribution to the mini-rebellion over the issue has been swift, with all those who voted for the amendment having the Labour whip withdrawn from them for six months.
Plans by the new government to keep the limit in place had sparked anger among the Left, and more than 40 Labour MPs abstained from the vote on the issue.
Speaking ahead of the vote Mr McDonnell, who was the former Shadow Chancellor when Labour was led by Jeremy Corbyn, confirmed he would back the SNP’s amendment.
He said: ‘I was in Parliament in 2015 when it [the cap] was introduced, and I condemned it and voted against it then. It’s really iniquitous, it’s forced large numbers of children into poverty and caused real hardship.
‘I don’t like voting for other parties’ amendments but I’m following Keir Starmer’s example as he said put country before party.
‘So I’m putting lifting children out of poverty before party whipping – 120 different organisations have called for the scrapping of the two-child limit and they comprise of community groups, religious groups, churches, trade unions and many in my own community.
‘I think it’s a dreadful measure that the Conservatives introduced and we could lift anywhere up to 400,000 children out of poverty just by this one measure.’
In the end he was joined in rebelling by Apsana Begum, Richard Burgon, Ian Byrne, Imran Hussain, Rebecca Long-Bailey, and Zarah Sultana.
The House of Commons voted 363 to 103, majority 260, to reject the amendment tabled in the name of SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn.
A total of 42 Labour MPs abstained with some of these being spotted in the chamber throughout the day, while others were given permission to miss the tally.
Slow handclapping could be heard in the chamber after the result was announced.
The cap was introduced in 2015 by then-Conservative chancellor George Osborne and restricts child welfare payments to the first two children born to most families.
Mr Flynn said: ‘Tonight, the Labour Party has failed its first major test in government.
‘Labour MPs had the opportunity to deliver meaningful change from years of Tory misrule by immediately lifting thousands of children out of poverty – they have made a political choice not to do so.
‘This is now the Labour government’s two-child cap – and it must take ownership of the damage it is causing, including the appalling levels of poverty in the UK.’
And while the amendment failed there are indications moves to scrap the two-child benefit cap have support across the Labour Party.
Ahead of the vote, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said there is ‘no silver bullet’ to end child poverty but acknowledged the ‘passion’ of Labour MPs who were considering rebelling over the continuation of the Tory measure.
Speaking earlier today Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall had insisted the government must ‘do the sums’ before making a decision on the policy, backing Chancellor Rachel Reeves who has insisted public finances must be stabilised by making a commitment.
On a round of interviews this morning, Ms Kendall warned that things could not be changed ‘overnight’.
She told Times Radio: ‘We were elected on the promise that we would only make spending commitments that we know we can keep and we are facing a dire inheritance from the Tories.
‘I’m not into a wink and a nudge politics.
‘I’m not going to look constituents in the face and tell them I’m going to do something without actually having done the sums figuring out how I’m going to pay for it.
‘Figuring out how we transform opportunity for those children, not just in terms of their household income, which is essential, but about having sustained improvements to helping people get work and get on in work, more childcare, early years support, sorting out the dire state of people’s housing.
‘It’s got to be part of a much bigger approach.’
Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said yesterday that the Government would look at lifting the cap as ‘one of a number of levers’ to tackle child poverty.
But she warned it would be ‘very expensive’ to reverse the policy as Labour battle with ‘really tough’ public finances.
Before becoming PM, Sir Keir said he would ditch the two-child limit ‘in an ideal world’ but added that ‘we haven’t got the resources to do it at the moment’.
The Resolution Foundation has calculated that abolishing the two-child limit would cost the Government somewhere between £2.5billion and £3.6billion in 2024/25 but said such costs are ‘low compared to the harm that the policy causes’.
Recent figures from the Department for Work and Pensions showed there were around 440,000 households in receipt of either universal credit or child tax credit who were not receiving the child element or amount for at least one child because of the policy, up from 409,050 as of April 2023.