Starmer snubs left-wing rebels as only four readmitted

Well, well, well. It transpires that four MPs suspended by Sir Keir Starmer for rebelling over the two child benefit cap have now had the whip restored by the Labour party. Today’s move comes a fortnight after John McDonnell took to LBC to urge Starmer to row back on the decision, telling journalists that ‘we’ve served our sentence, so I’m hoping we’ll simply have the whip restored’. It is rather amusing, then, that McDonnell is among the three remaining politicians who remain suspended. Awkward…

Rebecca Long-Bailey, Ian Byrne, Richard Burgon and Imran Hussain have been admitted back into the party after spending six months sitting as Independent MPs, according to the Mirror. But in a blow for the onetime shadow chancellor under Jeremy Corbyn, McDonnell has not been so lucky. Left-wingers Apsana Begum and Zarah Sultana are also still suspended, with their exclusion from Labour understood to be under review. Will they be allowed to stand under the party banner at the next general election? At the moment, that remains unclear…

The group of seven MPs were punished for lending their support to a Scottish National party amendment to the King’s Speech, which called for the government to scrap the controversial two-child benefit limit.