Courage of their convictions

After the Tories’ proposed welfare bill, which aims to slash child tax credits and lower benefit caps among other cuts, received its second reading yesterday (July 20), nearly 50 Labour MPs voted against it.

 
While interim Labour leader Harriet Harman tabled an amendment and asked the party to abstain from voting on the bill altogether, the opposing MPs joined together to take a stand against the legislation.

 
Critics argued that the move to defy the party’s leadership weakened Labour’s ability to oppose the Conservatives, but Labour leadership hopeful Jeremy Corbyn MP, who was among the 48 MPs voting against the bill, criticised this view.

 
“On the contrary, we strengthened [our ability to oppose the Conservatives],” he said on the Today Programme. “It showed that there were a lot of MPs – and many of those who abstained, their hearts were in the lobby with those who voted against – who are deeply concerned about the levels of child poverty in our society and deeply concerned about the levels of homelessness and rough sleeping.”

 
Utterly noxious bill

 
Clive Lewis MP for Norwich South told UNITElive his reasons for voting against the bill.

 
“I’ve never defied the whip – I would never do it casually or with a light heart,” he said. “And I do understand the idea that to be an effective part of the opposition, you have to be united.

 
“But the welfare bill was an utterly noxious and odious one that represented one of the greatest attacks on the welfare state in our lifetimes,” Lewis added. “I could not in good conscience stand by and do nothing – and I heard no convincing argument that supported abstention. It made absolutely no sense to me.”

 
Lewis described an environment in Westminster where it’s easy for MPs to sometimes “get sucked into a bubble and be bogged down by the technocratic details of a bill.

 
“But sometimes you’ve got to take a political and principled stand,” he noted. “The case for abstention would have been understandable had this bill been about, say, land reclamation management.

 
“The welfare bill, on the other hand, will directly affect our people – hundreds of thousands of children who will suffer,” Lewis argued. “Even if you do accept the rhetoric of welfare scroungers reliant on benefits – which I don’t – this bill is in fact a direct attack on hardworking families who are in employment.”

 
MP for Tooting Sadiq Khan and London mayoral candidate was also among the 48 MPs who voted against the bill.

 
Khan argued that the bill would be particularly detrimental to Londoners, who face extortionate living costs.

 
“I came into politics to make life easier for working people not harder, to lift children from poverty, not push them into it and to have a united London, not one socially cleansed,” Khan told UNITElive.

 
“This bill is bad for Londoners and bad for Britain. The people who will be affected by this need someone to stand up for them,” Khan added. “As Mayor of London that is what I would do. When we are designing a social security system for modern Britain, we need to make sure it works for Londoners, who will disproportionally affected by this Bill. If passed in its current form this bill will make life worse for Londoners and push children into poverty.”

 
Lewis went on to warn that the effects of this bill, if it were to successfully be pushed through, would be far-reaching – it would prove a perfect opportunity for pay day loan sharks to dive in and prey on those who have fallen on hard times, further “speeding the beast of personal debt”.

 
Alternative to austerity

 
Lewis said that the only way forward is for the Labour party to offer an alternative to the Tories’ austerity agenda.

 
“We need to send a clear statement and create a distinct narrative,” he said. “There are other, more effective ways of reducing the deficit without attacking ordinary, hardworking people. We need to build homes to reduce the housing benefit bill. We need to stimulate the economy by giving public sector workers a proper pay rise. This is all part of having a joined up, strategic economic plan that supports growth and gets more people into secure, well-paying jobs.”

 
Lewis railed against the idea that the Tories, after securing a slim majority in May, have a mandate to slash welfare entitlements to the bone.

 
“They have no such mandate – less than a quarter of the eligible electorate voted for them,” he said.
“And we as the Labour party have a mandate from the millions of people who voted for us to support working people and the most vulnerable.

 
“True leadership isn’t about acquiescing to your opposition and accepting their positions. It’s about articulating a narrative, putting forward clear, distinctive policies and offering a vision that the people can believe in.”

 
Principled opposition

 
Unite assistant general secretary Steve Turner praised the bravery of the 48 Labour MPs who stood by their convictions and voted against the bill.

 
“I’m very proud of the nearly 50 Labour MPs who took a stand for the people and opposed the draconian welfare bill that threatens to push hundreds of thousands of families into poverty, when they are just trying to get by,” he said.

 
“The scale of the cuts to benefits this government is threatening to carry out affects those with work, and those without, disabled people, women – who still have the most caring responsibilities, and young people,” he added. “It utterly undercuts and takes away gains made by the additional national minimum wage rate, which is in any case only available to those over 25.

 
“It’s only through principled opposition that we can effectively fight the Tories and their anti-worker, anti-growth policies which will send our country back to the dark ages. Yesterday’s opposition to the bill was a shining example of this.

 
“The stakes have never been higher – the lives of innocent children, who will be plunged into poverty as a result of this legislation, depend on our elected leaders protecting our public services and welfare state that’s now so gravely at risk.”

 
Full list of Labour MPs voting against the welfare bill