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The first of the seven Labour MPs who were suspended for voting against the two-child benefit cap are set to have the whip restored within days if they agree to avoid further rebellions in future, the Guardian understands.
However, several of the MPs, including John McDonnell, who was shadow chancellor under Jeremy Corbyn, are not expected to have the whip restored at the same time as whips believe they have continued to be “troublemakers”.
Keir Starmer suspended the seven leftwingers in July after they supported an amendment to the flagship king’s speech to scrap the two-child benefit cap, with Downing Street furious that they had voted against the platform they were elected to deliver.
McDonnell, along with Rebecca Long-Bailey – who stood against Starmer for the leadership in 2020 – Apsana Begum, Richard Burgon, Ian Byrne, Imran Hussain and Zarah Sultana, all lost the party whip for six months, after which their suspensions were due to be reviewed.
Labour’s chief whip, Alan Campbell, has been spending the last few days holding one-to-one discussions with the MPs, who have been sitting as independents in the Commons. Sources said they had been warned that their readmission to the Labour fold was subject to good behaviour.
One Labour source said decisions over the future of each within the party will be made separately, as several of them had been “making it worse for themselves” in recent weeks.
Another senior insider said: “They won’t get the whip back if they think they can behave themselves for two months and then start rebelling.”
The six-month sanction was served as of last Friday, when McDonnell told LBC radio that “hopefully the whip will be restored”. His decision to agree to a police interview under caution after a pro-Palestine march earlier this month, however, is expected to have delayed the decision.
There are even suggestions that McDonnell, who has acknowledged the police interview could “delay the timing” of his return, could be permanently excluded from the party, following Corbyn out of the door.
Sultana, the MP for Coventry South, is also unlikely to be readmitted in the short term, with one senior party figure pointing to a pinned post on X in which she asks Starmer to end the government’s “complicity in Israeli war crimes” by banning all arms sales to the country.
Labour sources suggested that Burgon, Leeds East MP, would not be readmitted in the near term as he had continued to use social media to criticise government policy after his suspension.
Long-Bailey, the MP for Salford , who was previously sacked by Starmer as shadow education secretary, is expected to be among the first to return to the fold as she has kept a low profile since her suspension, along with Byrne, the MP for Liverpool West Derby.
Labour insiders regarded the rebellion against the king’s speech as a serious breach, suggesting at the time that the vote on the government’s legislative programme was regarded as a vote of confidence in the new administration.
A party source said that Burgon, McDonnell and Sultana were seen as agitators since they had broken their agreement to vote with the government and had also criticised policy including on arms exports to Israel and scrapping the winter fuel allowance.
They said their suspension had been a show of strength by the party leadership that would make it clear to new Labour backbenchers that there were rules to be followed, and if they did not then they would be punished.
Another said: “It’s a message to stop MPs fucking about like that again in future. We have four years to make changes. There are various ways to make your voice heard and signal your frustration with certain decisions.”
A Labour veteran criticised the “control freakery” of the operation, arguing that the government should be able to show that it was a broad church, especially given the number of voters who backed independents and the Greens.
The strength of feeling on the two-child limit amendment, tabled by the SNP, was clear with 42 Labour MPs abstaining, as well as the seven who voted against, after dozens of child poverty charities and campaigners warned that more children would be driven into poverty as a result of the policy.
