Latest news with #RachaelMaskell
The Guardian
2 hours ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
Labour's four ‘rebels' aren't persistent – they are principled
As a former Labour MP who treated the whips with the contempt they deserved in October 2001 (the chief whip told me that war is not a matter of conscience), I feel qualified to judge Keir Starmer's clumsy submission for the Stalinist of the Year award (Keir Starmer removed Labour whip from four 'persistent rebel' MPs, 16 July). Starmer fails to topple the megalomaniac Donald Trump for the honour, since the prime minister considers an MP's three votes against the government over 12 months, out of 271 divisions, as being 'persistent'. The rebels aren't persistent – they are principled. Paul WB Marsden Oakenholt, Flintshire I am saddened by the decision to remove the whip from Rachael Maskell. Before the 2019 election, I phoned many potential Labour voters in her constituency of York Central. While I was surprised at the level of distrust voiced about the party, I was impressed by the number of those who spontaneously referred to Rachael, praising her as a committed and caring MP. Labour can ill afford to lose such an outstanding representative. Sheila Cross Newby Wiske, North Yorkshire This weak, self-serving prime minister has disenfranchised me. I voted Labour and Chris Hinchliff is a good constituency MP who certainly represented my views on universal credit and personal independence payments and on Gaza. If he stands in 2029, and I am still alive, I will vote for him again – if the current cabinet has been replaced with visionaries or if he stands as an independent. Margaret Waddingham Ware, Hertfordshire Have an opinion on anything you've read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our letters section.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Constituents critical of York MP's suspension
On Wednesday, York Central MP Rachael Maskell was suspended from Labour, along with three other MPs, for repeated breaches of party discipline. It came after she was a key figure in organising a rebellion against her party's welfare reform bill, which she said would introduce "Dickensian cuts belonging to a different era and a different party". Maskell defended her decision as standing up for disabled people but the prime minister argued the MPs were "elected on a Labour manifesto" and so should back the government's agenda. But what do Maskell's York constituents think? People in Acomb have spoken to the BBC about their reaction to the news. 'Absolutely disgusting' Richard Lowe, from the Huntington Road area of York, is visiting shops on Front Street with his wife. When quizzed about Maskell's suspension, he says this is a topic the couple has discussed in depth, due to their careers in healthcare. "Rachael Maskell, for me, embodies what the Labour movement should be," the former mental health nurse says. "My thoughts are that the suspension is absolutely disgusting. "As she says, she's been a Labour member for 34 years, she's stood up for disability rights, she's a disability campaigner." As an ex-nurse, Richard says he has always had a duty of care to his patients - and that Maskell has a duty of care to her constituents. "I won't be voting Labour at the next general election," he says. "If Rachael Maskell is still an independent MP, I'll vote for her but I'm not voting Labour. "I hope she's retaken into the Labour Party very shortly. I can't see it happening myself, but there you go." 'Where are the lines?' Sat on a bench alongside their dog are Angela and her mother-in-law, Carole, who both live locally. They explain they do not share the same political views as Maskell but were on the fence about Sir Keir Starmer's decision to suspend her. "It's difficult, isn't it? Everybody's entitled to their own opinion but where are the lines?" Angela asks. "I think Labour has made a lot of terrible choices in the past year or so. "They're not doing themselves any favours." However, they both thought the welfare system needed an overhaul. "If you're a disabled person, you should be entitled to a benefit if that benefit is appropriate for your disability," Angela says. "But I think possibly there's been a bit of a trend of people claiming disability benefits and I don't think there's been enough checks into the background of what's actually needed for some people." Carole believes more "double checks" should be made to see what benefit is fair for each claimant. 'Over the top' Further down the street, Carolina Ficco, 62, also stops to chat. She believes that no matter the political party, MPs should not be punished for representing their constituents. "I think it was extremely harsh and over the top that she's been suspended," Carolina says. "Everybody is entitled to an opinion and if she's representing people, why should she be dismissed for that? "That's what politicians are supposed to be about, they're a voice for us. It's bang out of order." She says Maskell's suspension is "absolutely, totally wrong". The prime minister defended his decision to suspend Maskell, along with Neil Duncan-Jordan, Brian Leishman and Chris Hinchliff. He said: "I am determined we will change this country for the better for millions of working people – and I'm not going to be deflected from that. "Therefore, we have to deal with people who repeatedly break the whip. "Everyone was elected as a Labour MP on a Labour manifesto of change and everybody needs to deliver as a Labour government." In a statement, the York Central MP said she wanted this Labour government to be the "very best ever" and said she had "used every opportunity" to reach into government to be an advocate for disabled people. "I am, of course, sad of the decision to suspend me for simply seeking the very best for others," Maskell said. "As someone of deep conviction and faith, I bring these values with me in all I do in representing my constituents and ensuring that I advocate for them, keep them safe and ensure that their voices are taken into the very heart of politics." Listen to highlights from North Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North. More on this story Starmer says he had to 'deal with' rebel Labour MPs Labour suspends four MPs after welfare cuts rebellion
The Independent
3 days ago
- Politics
- The Independent
The inside story of how Starmer seized back control of Labour - but with a risk
On Wednesday afternoon, York Central MP Rachael Maskell like most MPs was winding down, getting ready for a long summer recess to recharge, take stock and come back refreshed. Many of her colleagues were hitting the summer drinks circuit in Westminster with dreams of the various beaches in different corners of the Mediterranean they will be heading to in the very near future. But Ms Maskell got a call out of the blue asking her to go and see the Labour chief whip Sir Alan Campbell immediately. Starmer strikes back She was to discover that the prime minister - after discussion with his closest allies - had decided to strike. The talk of deputy prime minister Angela Rayner or possibly health secretary Wes Streeting replacing him had got too much. And it was clear after the welfare rebellion - which Ms Maskell had reluctantly in the end led - that he had lost control and needed to restore it. The plan to make examples of a few troublemakers was, it is claimed by one source, 'cooked up at Chequers' between him, Sir Alan and chief of staff Morgan McSweeney when senior ministers, key staff and others were called in to have a much needed reset. It was perhaps also a message to the MPs - if one was needed - that their demands for McSweeney to be sacked would not be heeded and he still wields influence over this government. The meeting with the chief whip on Wednesday afternoon was short with Ms Maskell discovering that she and three other colleagues - Neil Duncan-Jordan, Brian Leishman and Chris Hinchliff - had been suspended from the parliamentary Labour Party. Three others lost their trade envoy roles. 'I was very shocked,' Ms Maskell admitted to The Independent. 'I had no warning at all. I had no idea that this was coming, and I think that doesn't make for good party management, they should have engaged. There was no pre-warning.' The York Central MP had ended up being one of the leading welfare reform rebels, proposing a reasoned amendment on the day when Sir Keir had been forced to make a humiliating second U-turn and essentially cancel £5bn of disability benefit savings to avoid defeat. An interesting briefing went out that the four had been chosen for "persistent k*** headery' - put in normal English it meant they were serial rebels. Normally suspensions of the whip for rebels take place in the immediate aftermath of a vote - and there were 49 Labour MPs who voted against their government, 45 of whom have not been suspended. A rebellion 'by the book' Ms Maskell admitted to being stunned by the whole surprise strike. During her opposition to the welfare reform she thought she had played it by the book. 'I reached out to Number 10, I wrote to Keir Starmer a couple of times, I engaged with ministers, I wrote to the chief whip. There was never any indication that there would be any ramifications for this.' And she still has not had an explanation as to why she and the other three were singled out. 'Obviously my name was on the reasoned amendment, but it was the exact same reasoned amendment as the one by Dame Meg Hillier (which had been withdrawn after an initial U-turn). I think we're curious as to why the four of us have been identified in this situation.' Champagne for Starmer's allies The evening after the news broke the Labour Together thinktank, which McSweeney had used as the vehicle to destroy Jeremy Corbyn, held its summer drinks with a raft of loyalist MPs and ministers. As the champagne flowed and glasses clinked, Mr Streeting gave the main 'rah! rah!' speech with an uncoincidental message that it was Starmer and McSweeney 'who won us the election', just in case people needed reminding. In that particular reception Streeting was mostly preaching to the converted but it was less true in other summer drinks gatherings. A number of sympathetic rebels had gone over the night before the suspensions to the Diageo drinks in the garden connected to Westminster Abbey where they rubbed shoulders with loyalists, Tories, Lib Dems and the odd SNP MP. There several Labour MPs had sung the praises of Ms Maskell for her leadership in the rebellion with one more centrist rather than lefty rebel noting: 'I didn't come into politics to cut money for the disabled.' 'Good for Rachael for not backing down,' said another. The shock the next day when the axe fell on the four rebels was palpable. 'The fact he has to do this is a sign of weakness,' one critic noted. 'Absolutely shameful to target Rachael,' said another. Targeting four 'loners' Nobody could work out why those four had been chosen with the exception of Neil Duncan-Jordan who had been expected to quit the party anyway. Starmer had a discussion with his chief whip and Mr McSweeney over a concern 'he was losing control of the party.' 'He needed heads on spikes, he needed to reassert authority,' noted one ally. They went through the list of the 49 who had rebelled knowing that they could not suspend them all but wanted to pull out a few for special treatment. But why those four? The suspension of Ms Maskell in particular really grated with many of her colleagues, even ones who did not agree with her on welfare. The abiding theory though is that the four were 'loners', as one Labour MP put it. 'They are people without a real base.' An article of faith In particular, Ms Maskell's Christianity appears to have been a factor in her being picked out. There are a number who wonder if Starmer 'has a Christianity problem'. She cuts a lonely figure on the Labour benches opposing abortion and in a minority on ethical issues such as assisted dying, but beyond those conscience debates she has always made it clear that her faith shapes her politics not the other way round. Ms Maskell quoted to The Independent one of Jesus Christ's famous parables of God dividing the sheep and the goats between those who 'helped the hungry and thirsty and those who needed clothing' who went to paradise and those who did not who went to Hell. For Ms Maskell that was a guiding principle in the consideration of benefits for the disabled. 'I don't think the whips can determine what your conscience is,' she added. But she noted: 'I don't think it's well understood about those kind of deep motivations of faith. It's about public service for people out there, but actually being that voice in Parliament is important, and it's important, I think, at a time where our country is in such a state to be able to try and discern that responsibility.' It is not with a little irony that Starmer had decided his own version of the sheep and goats casting the four rebels into parliamentary outer darkness. Joining the Corbyn Party But with Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana setting up a party there was a feeling that some Labour MPs may be tempted to join, especially if they are ousted. There were more prominent names on the left who could have just as easily been suspended 'who would have walked straight into a Corbyn party', one MP noted. Ms Maskell said she would not 'but others might do.' 'You cannot find anybody more Labour than me,' she insisted, adding that she would 'not change' to be allowed back into the fold again. Another senior figure put it more bluntly: 'I think Starmer is finished. But if he keeps throwing people out to save himself, then Jeremy [Corbyn] is going to have more friends joining him.' But even allies are uncertain. At those Labour Together drinks, one figure on the right of the party said: 'I think it was a mistake. He should have suspended the whip immediately. All he he has succeeded in doing is reminding people of what happened just as it moved off the agenda. Now it will linger in people's minds over the summer.'
Times
4 days ago
- Politics
- Times
Suspended Labour MP: ‘Politics needs to embrace religion'
R achael Maskell says she is 'Labour through and through', and as a former NHS worker turned trade unionist, who has spent a decade in parliament campaigning on poverty, she is in many ways the archetypal Labour MP. Except, as of this week, she is no longer a Labour MP. Maskell is one of four backbenchers suspended by Sir Keir Starmer after organising rebellions over issues including disability benefit cuts and the winter fuel allowance. In an interview with The Times, Maskell said she hoped to be readmitted to Labour quickly after a 'period of reflection' over the summer, and criticised Starmer's 'narrow' leadership and the 'turgid approach to politics' that has driven voters away from the party.
The Guardian
5 days ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
Bluster, bullying, suspensions – this is no way to run the Labour party
This is a sign of weakness, not strength. To suspend four MPs for rebellion suggests a lack of authority and a lack of nerve, not a sense of confidence. Bullying and threats are no way to manage a party, but a signal that Labour has lost control, with its crude methods in cutting winter fuel payments and its attempt to cut disability benefits. As MPs head off for the summer next week, Keir Starmer and the Labour whips hope they will be mulling over their futures, having been warned of the severe penalty for disloyalty. But I doubt that's the message most will absorb. More than 120 MPs signalled their opposition to the proposed welfare cuts, and many more agreed but didn't sign the amendment. Was the solution to sack the lot? Or just the token 'ringleaders'? In fact there were none, just a strong belief among backbenchers of all varieties that not only were the cuts wrong, they were badly done and would be politically damaging, as indeed they were. Those suspended are of the soft left, by no means Corbynites. Rachael Maskell is a bit of a moral grandstander, annoying other MPs by suggesting her conscience is clearer than theirs, but suspensions tend to play to those tendencies (though the four will find that once they are no longer representing Labour, they will lose their voice with broadcasters). A Labour aide boasted gleefully that these 'heads on spikes' were intended as a warning shot to the new intake of MPs not to rebel, but it sounds like petty revenge for their success in forcing the leadership into U-turns. Don't even think of sacking Diane Abbott again: it didn't work out well. She would be away in the Lords now had the party not blundered last time, making her dig in her heels very effectively. Starmer is building quite a record for stamping down on dissent. He is the first prime minister to suspend the whip from MPs in his first month in power. In fact, during that first month, when he punished the seven who voted for an SNP motion to abolish the two-child benefit cap, he suspended more MPs than Tony Blair did during his decade in No 10, despite frequent rebellions. One senior Blair aide said Jeremy Corbyn wasn't expelled even though 'he voted more often against than for the government' (not strictly true, although he did vote against the government more than 400 times). I put that to a senior No 10 source, whose riposte was: 'Well, Blair should have done! It would have saved us a lot of years in opposition.' Unlikely. If not Corbyn, it would have been someone else of his ilk. Parties need discipline. How did Blair maintain it sufficiently, without expulsions? A Blair aide said he paid close attention to his backbenchers, holding a daily morning meeting with the chief whips Hilary Armstrong and Jackie Smith, and weekly meetings with a rotating roster of MPs including regular rebels – even Dennis Skinner – to test the contents of his speeches ahead of time. Aides such as parliamentary private secretaries were delegated to nurture various groups of MPs – the women, the union supporters, the religious, the leftists, those with particular political issues or constituency concerns, those in marginals who kept their ears closest to the ground. If Blair disagreed with them, he said so and explained why. 'Being listened to matters,' said the aide. But the whips weren't supine or toothless. 'They didn't threaten but they could make MPs' lives miserable,' the aide added, with measures such as denying pairing. Things will get worse when MPs return from summer recess, with the autumn budget, the review of services for children with special educational needs and disabilities and a child poverty strategy that needs to rescind the two-child benefit cap, despite 60% of the public in favour of keeping it, including half of Labour voters. There will be many more opportunities for conflict in the party. The problem is profound. This is not about a handful of usual suspects, but a deep unease about the direction of the government, or whether it even has a direction beyond a random collection of policies. Discipline only works if there is a strong story that defines where a government is heading and why. Too many MPs do not believe Starmer's story, especially after the U-turns they forced seemed to send Labour in a better, more coherent direction. Here's an example: it's brilliant that Starmer announced on Thursday that Labour will lower the voting age to 16, but where's the more radical constitutional reform? MPs can get arrogant when they forget they owe everything to the party that selected, financed and organised for them. However talented or beloved they think they are, few manage to buck the trend of national swings. But that also makes them more anxious about the success of the national party. Many know they won't be back after the next election, having won implausible seats by small majorities. The hailstorm of bad economic news in recent days depresses spirits: growth is lower than expected, inflation higher and unemployment up. 'Give me lucky generals,' Napoleon is reputed to have said, but Rachel Reeves so far has not been one of them. Opinion polls are dismal, with Labour overtaken alarmingly by Reform UK. The summer holiday may be approaching, but the party's MPs will go home glum. The way to bring them back in better fettle in September is to sharpen Labour's purpose, build on the best policies of the first year and stop making others that alienate supporters without gaining new ones. Listen to MPs. Remember Aesop's fable of the north wind and the sun competing to make a man remove his cloak. The north wind fails when it blows with all its might because the man wraps his cloak tighter around him, but when the sun shines he takes it off in the heat. Persuasion works better than force. Polly Toynbee is a Guardian columnist
