Seanm
pfm Member
Well I agree on the basic point: there are lots of things about the Labour Party I don't like but go along with anyway to campaign for certain values. But those values were exactly what was at stake in the welfare bill and the immigration bill that brought us Windrush, and so those are exactly the exceptions on which I'd expect credible candidates to break the whip, on grounds of both principle and strategy. Really, if we can't oppose legislation that deliberately sets out to persecute minorities and the poor there's simply no point to us, and a lot of people had already come to that conclusion by the 2015 GE. Lots of Labour MPs rebelled on the welfare bill (SNP, LDs, Greens and DUP - the DUP! - also voted against), including Clive Lewis and Long-Bailey, who were also new. I don't see their position as dodging collective responsibility, far from it.No, I don’t agree with that. I’m a member of the Labour part because it’s the best way of getting my values across, not because I like everything it does. Breaking the whip should be the exception and not the rule.
Aside from the fact he’d been an MP for four months, there's no way in the world Starmer or any other labour member supported that legislation (ok, maybe Liz Kendal), but he took collective responsibility. If you don’t like something, change it. And that’s what Starmer is doing now, taking control.
The guy is a born leader, we'd be beyond stupid to miss this opportunity.
It was the wrong decision on Starmer's part and the question for me, really, is whether he'd make it again - because he's going to be facing that kind of choice a lot.