Corbyn Suffers Revolt Over Commons Spending Vote
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has suffered a rebellion in the first major Commons test of loyalty to his leadership.
Twenty-one
Labour MPs defied a three-line whip by abstaining instead of voting to oppose
Chancellor George Osborne's fiscal charter that commits governments to running a budget surplus.
But the
Labour whips office played down the scale of
the revolt, which followed an "embarrassing" U-turn by shadow chancellor
John McDonnell.
The charter was passed by 320 to 258 - a majority of 62, after days of rows in Labour's ranks over whether to reject the plan.
Mr McDonnell had previously said he supported the "meaningless" document but he announced on Monday he had changed his position - just 48 hours before the vote.
Some politicians in the party had described the about face as an "absolute shambles"
.
In the Commons, Mr McDonnell admitted the U-turn - switching from urging Labour MPs to vote for the fiscal charter to urging them to do the opposite - was "embarrassing".
"But a bit of humility amongst politicians never goes amiss," he told the Commons. "When the circumstances and judgments change it is best to admit to it and change as well."
Mr McDonnell said he had reconsidered his position after visiting the families of steelworkers in
Redcar who have lost their jobs .
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Analysis:
Charter Was Political
Trap For McDonnell
Among the Labour rebels in the vote were former shadow cabinet ministers
Chris Leslie and
Tristram Hunt, as well as
Liz Kendall, who ran against Mr
Corbyn for the leadership.
Mike Gapes, who also abstained, told
Sky News: "I think we were in a bad position. We should have always abstained because
George Osborne had set a trap for the
Labour party, a great big elephant trap
.
"In the last few days, John McDonnell walked into the trap, then walked out of the trap, then walked back into it again."
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What Is The
Fiscal Charter?
Mr
Osborne had urged the Commons to support his revised Charter for
Budget Responsibility, which would enshrine the idea of running a surplus by 2019/20.
And he insisted Labour had reached a position where they supported "borrowing forever".
Mr Osborne had called on Labour members to opt for "economic sanity" and added: "A fortnight ago, Labour told voters they were ready to back our plans.
"But now they have confirmed they want to go on borrowing forever - loading debts onto our children that they can never hope to repay."
The 21 Labour MPs who defied the whips were
Rushanara Ali,
Ian Austin,
Adrian Bailey,
Ben Bradshaw,
Ann Coffey,
Simon Danczuk,
Chris Evans,
Frank Field and Mike Gapes.
Also
Dame Margaret Hodge, Tristram Hunt,
Graham Jones,
Helen Jones, Liz Kendall, Chris Leslie,
Fiona Mactaggart,
Shabana Mahmood,
Jamie Reed,
Angela Smith,
Graham Stringer and
Gisela Stuart.