Sadiq Khan joined 48 Labour rebels who thwarted the party whip – and interim leader Harriet Harman – to vote against the Tory’s Welfare Reform and Work Bill last night.
The bill, which would see child tax credits limited to two children among other reforms, has been mired in controversy, and when Labour’s amendment to the bill failed the party line was to abstain.
However Mr Khan, as well as other Labour London Mayoral candidates Diane Abbott and David Lammy, defied party leaders to reject the bill wholesale.
The bill would see benefit cuts to working families – one thinktank has estimated families with a second parent working would lose out on more than £2,000.
Mr Khan: “Cutting tax credits for families with more than two children is wrong. I oppose it.
“I came into politics to make life easier for working people, not harder. The Tory plan is bad for Londoners and bad for Britain.”
Former Home Secretary David Blunkett has said the party is in ‘emotional trauma’ while much has been made of the fractioning of Labour as the leadership contest intensifies.
Greg Hands, Conservative MP for Chelsea & Fulham, tweeted about the ‘biggest Labour rebellion for some time’ and called the party split a ‘crisis’.
47 Labour rebels on welfare tonight. Huge. Biggest Labour rebellion for some time. Leadership crisis without actually having a Leader!
— Greg Hands (@GregHands) July 20, 2015
Jeremy Corbyn was the only candidate in the leadership race to vote against the bill, his rivals Andy Burnham, Yvette Cooper and Liz Kendall all abstained.
Mr Burnham has said his abstention was to keep Labour united as a party but that they would vote against the bill as Labour leader unless ‘major’ changers were made.
Mayoral candidate and Hackney MP Diane Abbott made the vote a moral decision saying colleague who had abstained ‘knew it was wrong’.
Just voted against Tory Welfare Bill. Sorry for colleagues who knew it was wrong but abstained. We weren’t sent to Parliament to abstain.
— Diane Abbott (@HackneyAbbott) July 20, 2015
Labour MP for Hayes and Harlington John McDonnell, said he would ‘swim through vomit’ to oppose the bill.
Image courtesy of Sadiq Khan, with thanks
