Kim Johnson not the only MP to show spinelessness against ‘Sir Kid Starver’ – but she was supposedly going to do the opposite
Liverpool Riverside MP Kim Johnson was blazoned across the city’s local paper as ‘leading a rebellion’ against Keir Starmer’s ‘conscious cruelty’ in keeping the Tories’ two-child cap on benefits – one of the very few promises made as ‘opposition’ ‘leader’ that he’s actually kept – with a parliamentary amendment to Starmer’s King’s Speech calling for an end to it.
Predictably, her amendment was not accepted for debate – amendments from MPs of the governing party generally aren’t, especially with a craven Speaker – but far from rebelling, Johnson then tweeted thanking all who fought hard for the Labour gov to immediately scrap the 2 child cap’ in a brazen attempt to deflect criticism for voting with the government to defeat an SNP amendment demanding an end to the cruel cap that impoverishes around 1.5 million children, condemning many to hunger and a miserable childhood:
The tweet was, rightly, heavily ‘ratioed’, reflecting the disgusted reaction of those who read it.
Ms Johnson was not the only ‘left’ MP to shame themselves with this tactic, but she appears to have been the only one in headlines about how she was going to ‘lead a rebellion’ against the issue – they all, presumably, abstained rather than be registered voting for what’s right.
Only seven MPs showed actual courage and principle and were suspended from the party whip by Starmer for standing up for poor children and voting for the SNP amendment. They form a very short roll of honour:
- Ian Byrne, the Liverpool West Derby MP who has built a whole campaign for UK people to have a legal right to food
- Apsana Begum
- Richard Burgon
- Imran Hussain
- Rebecca Long Bailey
- John McDonnell
- Zarah Sultana
The cap that Starmer is determined to keep puts around 300,000 children below the poverty line and drastically worsens the situation of more than a million others. It costs around £38bn a year more to maintain the cap than the paltry £1.6bn it would cost to scrap it. Starmer has promised Ukraine £3bn a year for war.
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