No word yet on any suspension of the Labour whip, although the only MP not in receipt of it to have voted with the Government was of course Dan Norris, his proxy vote cast as ever by a Labour Whip such as he himself used to be alongside Ivor Caplin. Even the SDLP voted to refer Keir Starmer to the Privileges Committee.
By whipping this, Starmer has admitted his guilt. By adhering to that whip, most Labour MPs have said that they did not care. But 15 of them, plus Diane Abbott and Karl Turner, said no such thing. Is Starmer going to withdraw the whip from 15 people? And the Government’s working majority was down by 53. Of the convenient absentees, several might do a Richard Body, and that would create a bloc, by no means entirely “Hard Left”, of 20 or more. Either that will happen, or Starmer will let it all go. Having won, he cannot win.
Yet Starmer remains fortunate in his opponents. Neither Nigel Farage nor Robert Jenrick turned up to vote at all. Were they on the sauce? I am not saying that Hannah Spencer is right, but she is not unreasonable. Dennis Skinner, who like Spencer drank outside working hours, made the same point throughout his 49 years in Parliament. I do wonder how the drinking culture survived the heydays of Liberal Nonconformity and Labour Methodism. Was there ever a temperance bar in the Palace of Westminster?
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