Keir Starmer takes first PMQs amid Labour infighting on advantages

Keir Starmer is taking his maiden PMQs today as he struggles to keep a lid on furious Labour infighting.

Sir Keir is being grilled for the first time since his historic landslide, having been defied by seven MPs in a vote on the two-child cap on benefits.

But the premier’s brutal response of suspending the group – including prominent left-wingers John McDonnell, Richard Burgon and Rebecca Long Bailey – sparked an outcry in his own ranks.

One of the rebels put on ice for six months, Zara Sultana, suggested this morning that Sir Keir had treated the situation like a ‘macho virility test’. She declared she had ‘slept well’ after voting to scrap the limits on handouts for big families.

The president of the TUC said the rebels ‘spoke for millions of trade union members and many Labour Party members’. 

A Corbynite campaign group branded him ‘Sir Kid Starver’ on social media, while even supporters warned that he is sitting on a ‘timebomb’.   

Despite ministers hinting that they will move to ditch the two-child cap as soon as possible, a further 40 Labour MPs abstained on a King’s Speech amendment tabled by the SNP.

With Sir Keir enjoying an enormous working majority of around 180, the overall result was never in doubt – with the Commons voted 363 to 103, majority 260, to reject the amendment.

Some of those who missed the division will have been given permission, but others are thought to have actively dodged taking part.

Ms Sultana told ITV’s Good Morning Britain that she did not regret her decision. 

‘I slept well knowing that I took a stand against child poverty that is affecting 4.3 million people in this country and it is the right thing to do and I am glad I did it,’ she said.

She said she saw the email on the way home from the vote last night saying she had had the whip removed.

‘I look forward to many bills that will be coming forward in this Government including nationalising rail, the new deal for working people, but I was also very honest that we should go further, we can make a real difference to people’s lives,’ she said.

‘And when you’ve got anti-charity campaigners, think tanks, trade unions saying that the key driver for child poverty in this country – which is the sixth largest economy in the world – is the Tories’ two-child benefit cap, then it is a moral imperative on the Labour Party to scrap that and do everything that they can to make sure that not a single child has to live in unnecessary hardship and poverty.’

Asked on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme for her view on Sir Keir, Ms Sultana said: ‘I’m not interested in playing up to this macho virility test that seems to be what people are talking about. It’s about the material conditions of 330,000 children living in poverty.’

Pressed on whether she meant Sir Keir had viewed the situation as a macho test, Ms Sultana said: ‘This isn’t a game, this is about people’s lives.’

Matt Wrack, head of the Fire Brigades Union and president of the TUC, posted on X: ‘1.6 million children are affected by the two-child cap, and 300,000 children live in poverty as a result of it. The UK is a rich country with ample resources for everyone to live a decent life.

‘The seven MPs who voted to scrap the cap spoke for millions of trade union members and many Labour Party members. Keir Starmer must restore the whip to them immediately.’

One Labour MP told Politico they were worried about the ruthlessness of the response, saying it was ‘not a good timebomb to be too casual about, whatever your mandate looks like now’. 

Former shadow home secretary Diane Abbott said she could not vote for ‘personal reasons’, but was ‘horrified’ at the action taken against the rebels. 

Speaking ahead of the vote Mr McDonnell, who was shadow chancellor under Jeremy Corbyn, confirmed he would back the SNP’s amendment.

He said: ‘I was in Parliament in 2015 when it [the cap] was introduced, and I condemned it and voted against it then. It’s really iniquitous, it’s forced large numbers of children into poverty and caused real hardship.

‘I don’t like voting for other parties’ amendments but I’m following Keir Starmer’s example as he said put country before party.

‘So I’m putting lifting children out of poverty before party whipping – 120 different organisations have called for the scrapping of the two-child limit and they comprise of community groups, religious groups, churches, trade unions and many in my own community.

‘I think it’s a dreadful measure that the Conservatives introduced and we could lift anywhere up to 400,000 children out of poverty just by this one measure.’

In the end he was joined in rebelling by Apsana Begum, Richard Burgon, Ian Byrne, Imran Hussain, Rebecca Long-Bailey, and Zarah Sultana.

Slow handclapping could be heard in the chamber after the result was announced.

The cap was introduced in 2015 by then-Conservative chancellor George Osborne and restricts child welfare payments to the first two children born to most families.

Mr Flynn said: ‘Tonight, the Labour Party has failed its first major test in government.

‘Labour MPs had the opportunity to deliver meaningful change from years of Tory misrule by immediately lifting thousands of children out of poverty – they have made a political choice not to do so.

‘This is now the Labour government’s two-child cap – and it must take ownership of the damage it is causing, including the appalling levels of poverty in the UK.’

And while the amendment failed there are indications moves to scrap the two-child benefit cap have support across the Labour Party. 

Ahead of the vote, Sir Keir said there is ‘no silver bullet’ to end child poverty but acknowledged the ‘passion’ of Labour MPs who were considering rebelling over the continuation of the Tory measure.

Speaking earlier today Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall had insisted the government must ‘do the sums’ before making a decision on the policy, backing Chancellor Rachel Reeves who has insisted public finances must be stabilised by making a commitment. 

On a round of interviews, Ms Kendall warned that things could not be changed ‘overnight’.

She told Times Radio: ‘We were elected on the promise that we would only make spending commitments that we know we can keep and we are facing a dire inheritance from the Tories.

‘I’m not into a wink and a nudge politics.

‘I’m not going to look constituents in the face and tell them I’m going to do something without actually having done the sums figuring out how I’m going to pay for it. 

‘Figuring out how we transform opportunity for those children, not just in terms of their household income, which is essential, but about having sustained improvements to helping people get work and get on in work, more childcare, early years support, sorting out the dire state of people’s housing.

‘It’s got to be part of a much bigger approach.’

The Resolution Foundation has calculated that abolishing the two-child limit would cost the Government somewhere between £2.5billion and £3.6billion in 2024/25 but said such costs are ‘low compared to the harm that the policy causes’.

Recent figures from the Department for Work and Pensions showed there were around 440,000 households in receipt of either universal credit or child tax credit who were not receiving the child element or amount for at least one child because of the policy, up from 409,050 as of April 2023.