Back bench Labour revolt

[Sid Shniad <shniad@xxxxxx>]

The Daily Telegraph					11 December 1997

BLAIR SUFFERS ANGRY REVOLT ON BENEFITS

	By George Jones, Political Correspondent, and Joy Copley

	Labour MPs last night staged their biggest revolt since the election
after delivering a Commons mauling to Harriet Harman, the Social Security
Secretary, over cutbacks in lone parent benefits.
	A total of 47 Labour backbenchers voted against the Government
and many more abstained. Neither Tony Blair nor any member of the
Cabinet was present to give moral support to Miss Harman. At one point,
as she tried to defend the decision to proceed with cuts originally planned
by the Tories, she appeared close to tears when faced by a barrage of
interruptions from angry Labour Left-wingers. An amendment tabled by
the Liberal Democrats and Labour rebels seeking to strike out the cuts was
defeated by 457 votes to 107, a majority of 350.
	The Government was never in any danger of defeat because of its
commanding majority and the decision of the Tories to support the cuts.
But the rebellion was bigger than expected and the Tories claimed that as
many as 40 Labour MPs had deliberately missed the vote in addition to
those who voted against the Government.
	In an earlier division, up to 60 Labour backbenchers failed to
support the Government, many of them remaining in their places in a public
demonstration of defiance. The votes came at the end of a day of growing
tension at Westminster, with a junior Scottish Office minister, Malcolm
Chisholm, resigning from the Government and three unpaid parliamentary
secretaries quitting or being sacked for refusing to support the benefit
cutbacks.
	Mr Chisholm, 48, the Left-wing MP for Edinburgh N and Leith,
became the first minister to resign from Mr Blair's Government on a point
of principle. He said he could not bring himself to vote for the cuts, which
were an attack on some of the poorest women in society. The Government
announced that the Western Isles MP Calum Macdonald would replace
him.
	The PPSs who quit were Gordon Prentice, aide to Gavin Strang,
the transport minister, and Mick Clapham, aide to Alan Milburn, the health
minister. Alice Mahon, aide to Chris Smith, the culture secretary, refused
to resign but was sacked later for her disloyalty. Earlier, Mr Blair - who
last night hosted a Downing Street reception - had insisted that the cuts
should go ahead to demonstrate that a Labour Government was prepared
to take tough decisions and would not let public spending get out of
control.
	But his decision to push through the cuts has caused serious strains
within the Labour Party at Westminster. Many Labour MPs who had
backed the Government were privately critical of the cuts in lone parent
benefit and believe that it will cost the Government considerable goodwill
among supporters.
	Faced with such a show of defiance, the Labour leadership backed
away from formal disciplinary action against the majority of the rebels.
Nick Brown, the government chief whip, said the rebels would receive a
telling off from him or one of his whips. They would be "shown the yellow
card".
	But four MPs have been singled out by the whips for harsher
treatment. They are John Marek (Wrexham), Brian Sedgemore (Hackney S
and Shoreditch), Bob Wareing (Liverpool, West Derby) and Ken
Livingstone (Brent East).
	Most ministers and PPSs were called back to the Commons to vote.
Among the MPs given leave of absence were John Prescott, the deputy
Prime Minister, and Michael Meacher, environment minister, who are at
the Kyoto summit, and Jack Straw, the Home Secretary, who is attending a
summit on crime in Washington.
	Miss Harman said that unlike the Tories, the Government was
proposing "substantive measures" to help lone parents into work as well as
cutting benefit. She said: "Our manifesto promised to provide help for lone
parents in moving into work. That's what is expected of us and that's what
we are delivering." But Labour Left-wingers queued to challenge Miss
Harman's repeated assertion that lone parents wanted to go back to work
and would be better off with jobs.
	Mrs Mahon, the MP for Halifax, told the Commons that the money
was available to avoid these cuts and the Government has lost the
argument. She said: "Where in the manifesto did it say we were going to
make cuts to lone parents? Not in a million years did any of us expect we
would be faced with the choice we are faced with tonight."