The Scotsman Bulletin Wednesday July 24 2024 #Labour #BenefitCap
The Scotsman head of news Dale Miller speaks to Westminster correspondent Alexander Brown about the latest news in Parliament
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00:00Hello and welcome to the Scotsman's Daily Video Bulletin for this Wednesday.
00:12My name is Dale Miller.
00:13I'm Head of News at the Scotsman and I'm joined by Westminster Correspondent Alexander Brown.
00:19And Alex, I'm going to get you to talk through the front page because your byline is on our
00:24splash today.
00:26There's a big vote in the Commons.
00:27Talk us through.
00:29So last night there was the vote on an SNP amendment on the two-child benefit cap.
00:35There was a minor rebellion for the Labour Party, but what could have been a huge headache
00:39for Keir Starmer actually went pretty well with just seven MPs defying the whip to vote
00:45to immediately end the two-child benefit cap.
00:48The SNP had brought this and been campaigning on it for quite some time, but the problem
00:53for the Labour Party is so have many of its own MPs.
00:55Michael Shanks, now an energy minister, Scottish Labour MP, had previously said Rishi Sunak
01:00has to scrap this horrible cap, this shameful cap that puts children further into poverty.
01:07And last night he had to go and vote for it because that's Labour policy.
01:10And I think for the SNP, this is the best thing that could have happened for them.
01:15They immediately can say Scottish Labour said one thing and did another and they do not
01:19value you and they do not care about poverty.
01:22For the Labour Party, they know this is an issue.
01:24And everyone in the Labour Party, if you speak to them, wants to get rid of the two-child
01:28benefit cap. And a lot of them who maybe voted for it last night still want to get rid of
01:32the two-child benefit cap.
01:34But they're just waiting until the finances are better.
01:36And the problem is, when are the finances better?
01:38How do you quantify that?
01:40Is that by conference, is it six months?
01:42Is inflation going to be better by then?
01:44How do you grow the economy in time to do it?
01:46And it's this simple thing that can immediately lift hundreds of thousands of children out
01:51of poverty and Labour aren't going to do it.
01:54It's a it's a real mess.
01:56As for the rebels, there were only seven, which is not surprising given the fact that
02:00the Labour whips are saying anyone who votes against the government.
02:03And bear in mind, this is Labour's first test in government as a new government.
02:08Anyone who voted against the whip would lose it and be suspended.
02:11So we have seen seven MPs suspended from the Labour Party.
02:15But I don't think Keir Starmer will lose any headaches over who they are.
02:18John McDonnell, the former shadow chancellor and a close ally of Jeremy Corbyn, was never
02:23but had already was very outspoken on the whip on this policy and wasn't necessarily
02:27ever been supportive of Starmer.
02:29Same for people like Zara Sultana, Nadia Witton.
02:32It's the far left of the party or Richard Burgundy, people close to Corbyn who do not
02:37value or appreciate Starmer as a leader and think the party needs to be moved further
02:42to the left. So it felt like a bullet dodged, even if it's not a nice thing to have done.
02:49So, Alex, was this an easy one for Starmer to get tough on, given that the individuals
02:53that did rebel, you know, was that easy or will it actually be viewed as a positive move?
03:00I mean, will people within his party take notice that, you know, look, if you don't
03:04vote with the government, then you will face disciplinary action.
03:08I mean, it speaks to the strength of the government, that an issue that most people
03:11fundamentally disagree with, they voted the other way because they were back to the idea
03:16that the Labour government has to get the finances in order to do things first, rather
03:20than being bounced into it.
03:22And I think the best thing for the government was there was a separate amendment.
03:25So this is an SNP amendment that got voted on.
03:27But there was also a Labour amendment that could have been selected from Kim Johnson,
03:31who had an MP for Liverpool, which had a lot more support, I think from 40 odd Labour
03:34MPs that signed it. If that amendment had been selected, I think there'd be a bigger
03:38rebellion. As it is, Labour MPs are less inclined to vote for an SNP vote than a Labour
03:46one because it's, you know, they see it as party political.
03:49This was a strong evening for Simon's leadership.
03:51You can disagree with the merits of what happened, but he suspended people.
03:55It shows, you know, he's not willing to have any kind of dissent in the party.
04:00And while there were some people abstaining, it's not enough to be in any way, it's
04:05just a threat to his leadership.
04:06And it kind of just reinforces his authority, which is already very strong after such a
04:11resounding election win.
04:13And Alex, turning to the Tories, we've finally got someone that's put their hand up
04:18and has said they're going to run for the leadership.
04:20It's James Cleverley, who I think many of our readers and viewers right now would know.
04:26But what's the actual process?
04:28I mean, I do know the final date is November.
04:31It seems like a long, long way away, Alex.
04:34Well, they want a lot.
04:34They need a long time because they need to make sure they get it right.
04:37I mean, after Liz Truss, who was a complete disaster, and Rishi Sunak managed to take
04:42the terrible polling and essentially maintain it and never particularly approve it, despite
04:49everything, they need that long time.
04:51As for the process, previously, it would be that you would get down to a final two.
04:55MPs would vote and then MPs would go and vote for the candidates.
04:59And the one with the least votes would be eliminated until we come to a final two.
05:04There's hostings and that goes to a Tory membership.
05:07And that's not the case in what I think is clearly an attempt to prevent what much like Labour
05:13did in the leadership on the race for Starmer, almost like a Corbyn clause.
05:17Instead of having it just be two and then go to the membership, it goes to four.
05:22That goes to the membership.
05:24And once it goes to four, MPs can then narrow it down to two.
05:27So we go down to four.
05:30Membership can have a view and express what they think.
05:33But really, it's the parliamentary party that decides.
05:35The parliamentary party will narrow it down to two and then the membership decides.
05:39So say you had people both on the right of the party, say Sweller-Braverman, who I don't
05:44know if she's going to get enough MPs to back her.
05:47She's not very popular in the parliamentary party.
05:49And Kemi Badenoch, who we'll be announcing shortly, of course, said that she was having
05:52a very public breakdown.
05:54If she was on the list and so was someone else, the party would get rid of them to have
05:59more sensible MPs to increase their chances of winning.
06:02So it's the parliamentary party taking back control, to coin a phrase, from its membership
06:09who have repeatedly shown they're far more right wing than the rest of the country.
06:14You can read all the latest about the vote that took place in the Commons around the
06:20two-child benefit cap, as well as movements on the Tory leadership.
06:23And just how Suzuki-Stama performs today, Alex, I know you'll be blogging about that
06:28throughout today.
06:29That's all at Scotsman.com.
06:31You can follow us on X Facebook and Instagram and go out and buy a copy of the paper
06:37tomorrow. There will be plenty on the UK government latest.
06:40Thanks for joining us.