IN Keir Starmer’s mission to win the next General Election, he has U-turned on key pledges and abandoned longstanding Labour orthodoxy.
As the party has turned more and more blue, discontent from within the party has surfaced in bits and parts.
Indeed, on Monday, an anonymous Labour MP accused the head honcho of creating a “culture of fear” in which the party’s left-wing MPs are worried of being ousted ahead of next year’s General Election.
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The former shadow secretary of state told i: “MPs are now going through their social media deleting everything that could be seen as even slightly contentious. It’s sinister.”
Opposition has generally been kept in check, though, by said "culture of fear/Keir" ... until now.
Monica Lennon – MSP for Central Scotland – certainly made her disapproval known on Twitter after Starmer said his party would not commit to scrapping the two-child benefit cap.
Starmer was making a speech on Thursday morning in Gillingham when he was asked by a reporter from The Sun to confirm whether getting rid of the rule was the party’s policy after shadow work and pension secretary Jonathan Ashworth said last month it was “heinous”.
Starmer said: “Obviously that isn’t our policy and if that changes I’ll let you know.”
The two-child cap was introduced in 2017 by George Osbourne and restricts benefits support to the first two children.
The measure attracted huge controversy over the so-called “rape clause”, which forced women to reveal pregnancies arising from non-consensual sex to qualify for some benefit.
Lennon took aim at Starmer's U-turn – after all, he committed to scrapping it three years ago – calling the policy "abhorrent".
I know colleagues are scared of deselection, being exiled to backbenches, or not winning selections but if we don’t speak out then who will? The two-child benefit cap (aka the rape clause) is abhorrent and must be scrapped. @UKLabour policies must be progressive and humane. https://t.co/GCuuXrF3sd
— Monica Lennon MSP (@MonicaLennon7) July 6, 2023
She tweeted: “I know colleagues are scared of deselection, being exiled to backbenches, or not winning selections, but if we don’t speak out then who will?
“The two-child benefit cap (aka the rape clause) is abhorrent and must be scrapped. @UKLabour policies must be progressive and humane.”
Labour closes in
Despite all of this, a new poll suggests Labour have closed the gap with the SNP to three points going into the next General Election.
The Survation poll found that Branch Office leader Anas Sarwar’s party has managed a four-point swing compared with a survey conducted two months ago, with the SNP now on 37%, Labour at 34%, the Conservatives on 17% and the Liberal Democrats on 9%.
If this were to remain correct, this would put Labour and the SNP almost neck-and-neck in terms of the number of seats that would be won at the next General Election.
Although, interestingly, instead of a direct flow of voters from the SNP to Labour, the narrowing lead is a result of Labour gaining support across all parties.
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