Harriet Harman has just finished addressing the PLP about the party’s official position on welfare cuts. There was a reasonable amount of applause for the interim Labour leader when she finished speaking, but party sources described the meeting as ‘quite split’ and that ‘obviously there were a lot of people who were quite uncomfortable’.
She started by telling MPs that all of them recognised what a profound shock the election result was, and that many of her constituents will be affected by the changes that will take place as a result of this Budget. But she also reminded people that in the last phase of Opposition, Labour voted against every measure on welfare, and voted against all 13 bills, and the only thing that the public picked up on was the bedroom tax, while Labour failed to make an impression on any other welfare measures. She argued that if you mount a blanket opposition to everything, it is really difficult to make a mark on the things that you really want to change.
The party will campaign on the four issues already set out in this post, and may table amendments to detailed measures.
Harman ended her speech by pointing out to MPs that the Tories are introducing these measures now, and that they want to make the most of Labour being in disarray. She hit back against suggestions that she was enjoying this job a little bit too much, arguing that the job she really wanted was to be Deputy Prime Minister in a Labour government. A source said: ‘She wants to do her best now to make the right decisions so that she’s not going to bind the hands of the next leader and it will be up to them to decide how to move forward on these things.’
She told her Labour colleagues that ‘we voted hundreds of times for virtuous opposition’ and that the party cannot ‘campaign against the public at this stage: we should be campaigning with the public against the government’.
Harman now has to decide what sort of whip to apply to the abstention on the welfare bill. My hunch is that it will be a one-line whip, given it is likely there will be three leadership candidates voting against the bill, but this hasn’t been decided.
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