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Four Labour MPs who lost the party whip in July for being “persistent rebels” have had the sanction removed, the last of a series of penalised backbenchers to be allowed back into the fold.
Neil Duncan-Jordan, Chris Hinchliff, Brian Leishman and Rachael Maskell spoke to the party’s chief whip, Jonathan Reynolds, and were allowed to hold the whip again after a review of how they had behaved since the suspension, it is understood.
The decision to strip the four of the whip came as a surprise and dismayed a number of their colleagues, who saw it as a heavy-handed attempt by Keir Starmer’s Downing Street operation to impose discipline following a humiliating government climbdown on welfare reform the month before.
All four MPs had been openly critical of several government policies. Maskell, the York Central MP, and Duncan-Jordan, who represents Poole, had spearheaded opposition to the cut to the winter fuel allowance and welfare reforms.
Hinchliff, the MP for North East Hertfordshire, organised a rebellion over the government’s flagship planning bill, voicing concerns about its effect on nature. Of the suspended MPs, all but Maskell are from the 2024 Labour intake.
At the same time, party whips removed trade envoy roles from three other MPs who rebelled – Rosena Allin-Khan, Bell Ribeiro-Addy and Mohammad Yasin.
In response to having the whip restored, Hinchliff said: “I’m pleased to have returned to the parliamentary Labour party and welcome the constructive discussions I’ve had with the new chief whip in recent months.
“As ever, my focus remains on serving the communities of North East Hertfordshire and contributing to Labour’s historic mission to create a society that puts people and nature before profit.”
Duncan-Jordan told the PA news agency: “I’ve been part of the Labour and trade union movement for 40 years, so I’m pleased to have had the Labour whip restored today.
“I’ll continue working hard for my constituents in Poole and standing up for Labour values – tackling poverty, raising living standards and building a fairer society.”
Maskell said she was “Labour to the core and will always stand up for Labour values”, after having the party whip restored.
The MP told the PA news agency: “I will continue to work hard for my constituents in York as their Labour and Co-operative MP.”
In 2024, shortly after the general election, seven other Labour MPs lost the whip for supporting an amendment to the king’s speech calling for an end to the two-child benefit cap, which has been blamed for a rise in child poverty.
Four of these, Rebecca Long-Bailey, Ian Byrne, Imran Hussain and Richard Burgon, had the whip restored in January and February. Two others, John McDonnell and Apsana Begum, had it reinstated in September.
The last of the seven, Zarah Sultana, has cut ties with Labour and is attempting to launch a new leftwing party alongside Jeremy Corbyn, who was re-elected in 2024 election as an independent.
Sultana is among a handful of other MPs elected last year on the Labour ticket who are still sitting as independents, including Diane Abbott.
In July this year, in a separate case to that of the four other MPs, Abbott was suspended for a second time after saying she did not regret her past remarks on racism, which had cost her the whip for a long period in the last parliament.
Abbott had said people of colour experienced racism “all their lives”, which was different from the “prejudice” experienced by Jewish people, Irish people and Travellers. She was re-suspended for telling the BBC that her comments “were factually correct, as any fair-minded person would accept”.
The other former Labour MPs sitting still as independents are Rosie Duffield, who resigned from the parliamentary party a few months after the election; Andrew Gwynne, who was sacked as a minister and lost the whip after the emergence of offensive messages in a WhatsApp group he was part of; and Dan Norris, who was suspended after he was arrested on suspicion of rape and child sex offences.
