Sir Keir Starmer has suspended three Labour MPs for what party sources describe as “persistent breaches of party discipline”, marking the Prime Minister’s latest move to assert control over his increasingly rebellious backbenches following a bruising welfare reform battle.
Brian Leishman, Chris Hinchliff, and Neil Duncan-Jordan were stripped of the party whip on Wednesday afternoon after being summoned to Chief Whip Alan Campbell’s Westminster office. The trio had played pivotal roles in organising opposition to the government’s controversial £5 billion welfare cuts, which triggered the biggest rebellion of Starmer’s premiership just weeks ago.
A senior Labour source told The Times that the MPs had been warned repeatedly before the suspensions were imposed, with one insider characterising their behaviour as “persistent knobheadery. The source added that the three had been specifically targeted for their role in coordinating the welfare rebellion that nearly derailed the government’s flagship reform bill.
“They knew the consequences of their actions,” a government source said. The Prime Minister has been clear that while disagreement is acceptable, organised campaigns to undermine government policy cross a line.
The suspensions come after Starmer was forced into an embarrassing climbdown on his welfare reforms in early July to avoid a potentially catastrophic Commons defeat. More than 100 Labour MPs had backed a “reasoned amendment” that would have effectively killed the government’s plans to tighten eligibility for Personal Independence Payment and other disability benefits.
Leishman, who represents Alloa and Grangemouth, had been particularly vocal in his opposition. Writing recently about his first year in Parliament, he stated: “I believe a Labour Government should instead look at raising revenues and redistributing wealth and power across society.”
Chris Hinchliff, the MP for North East Hertfordshire, had warned in May that the proposed cuts would affect “700,000 families already living in poverty” and force “50,000 extra children into poverty. He declared he would vote against the measures if brought before Parliament.
Neil Duncan-Jordan, representing Poole, had tabled an Early Day Motion criticising the government for introducing reforms “without prior consultation or an impact assessment”. The three MPs had also rebelled on other issues including the winter fuel allowance and planning reform, according to party sources.
The suspensions echo Starmer’s response to a previous rebellion last July when seven MPs, including former Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell, were suspended for six months after voting with the SNP to scrap the two-child benefit cap. Of those seven, four have since had the whip restored whilst McDonnell, Apsana Begum, and Zarah Sultana remain suspended.
One left-wing Labour MP, speaking anonymously, warned that the latest suspensions sent a troubling message. “It doesn’t look good for him that he’s having to do this,” they said. “We’re meant to be a broad church, but it seems dissent is no longer tolerated.”
The move has exposed deep divisions within Labour’s ranks over the government’s approach to welfare reform. Richard Burgon MP had previously warned that Starmer faced the “mother of all rebellions” over disability benefit cuts, predicting opposition would extend “well beyond the left of the parliamentary Labour party.
Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall has defended the reforms as necessary to fix a “broken system”, whilst Chancellor Rachel Reeves has warned that abandoning the cuts would leave a multi-billion-pound black hole in the Treasury’s plans. However, critics point to the government’s own impact assessment, which estimates 250,000 people could be pushed into poverty, including 50,000 children.
The timing of the suspensions is particularly significant as Starmer approaches his first anniversary in Downing Street facing rock-bottom approval ratings and a resurgent Reform UK eating into Labour’s traditional support base. The Prime Minister recently admitted to The Sunday Times that he had been “heavily focused on what was happening with NATO and the Middle East” whilst the welfare rebellion was brewing, acknowledging he “should have acted sooner” to address colleagues’ concerns.
Labour’s parliamentary party now faces a critical test of unity. With the government’s 156-seat majority, losing three MPs may seem manageable on paper. However, as one Westminster insider observed, “If the government can’t get these cuts through with this majority, particularly with loads of young MPs hungry for a ministerial career, then what hope does it have for future fiscal consolidation efforts?”
The suspended MPs will now sit as independents, though they remain members of the Labour Party. Their suspensions are expected to last six months before being reviewed, following the precedent set with last year’s rebels. Whether they will be welcomed back into the fold depends largely on their conduct during this period – and whether they continue to publicly criticise government policy.
As Parliament prepares for the summer recess, the question remains whether Starmer’s hardline approach will quell dissent or merely drive opposition underground. With difficult decisions on public spending looming in the autumn, the Prime Minister may find that suspending troublesome MPs is merely a temporary solution to a much deeper problem within his party.
The latest suspensions bring the total number of Labour MPs sitting without the whip to at least six, a remarkable figure for a government barely a year old. For a Prime Minister who promised to restore stability and competence to British politics, the sight of his own MPs being marched out of the parliamentary party sends an uncomfortable message about the state of his leadership.
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Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer arrives at Number 10 Downing St – Image by Simon Walker / No 10 Downing Street, licensed under CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
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