UK’s Starmer faces first grilling from MPs after early rebellion

Published

4 months ago

July 24, 2024

By Francesca Hangeior.

Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer holds a press conference at the end of his cabinet’s first meeting in Downing Street in London on July 6, 2024.

Keir Starmer faces his first House of Commons grilling as UK prime minister on Wednesday, after suspending seven of his own Labour MPs for rebelling over a controversial welfare policy.

Starmer suspended the Labour rebels late Tuesday after they backed a motion demanding the removal of the contentious two-child limit on benefits introduced by the previous Conservative government.

Their votes supporting ending the cap — introduced in 2015 and which restricts payments to the first two children born to most families — is an early test of Starmer’s authority.

The new UK leader has warned there is “no silver bullet” to ending child poverty but acknowledged the “passion” of MPs who oppose maintaining the policy.

Starmer’s decision to suspend the whip from the group of left-wingers, which included former finance spokesman John McDonnell, was seen as a show of ruthlessness from his new administration.

The Labour leader took power just weeks ago after his party, in opposition for 14 years from 2010, won a landslide in the July 4 general election.

The victory followed a four-year struggle since he became party leader to shift Labour back to the political centre ground from the hard-left regime of former leader Jeremy Corbyn.

The party in 2019 experienced its worst election result in nearly a century under Corbyn.

Starmer will be on his feet in the Commons at 1100 GMT for his first weekly Prime Minister’s Questions session, when the politically charged two-child cap could feature.

Late Tuesday, MPs voted 363 to 103 to reject a Scottish National Party (SNP) amendment to scrap the cap, giving the government a majority of 260.

However, in addition to the seven who voted with the amendment, more than 40 Labour lawmakers recorded no vote, highlighting the level of unease within the centre-left party at the measure.

Liverpool MP Kim Johnson said she had voted with the government “for unity” but warned that the strength of feeling within the party was “undeniable”.

“We moved the dial, the campaign will continue,” she said.

The SNP’s Westminster leader Stephen Flynn said Labour had “failed its first major test in government” by choosing not to “deliver meaningful change from years of Tory misrule”.

“This is now the Labour government’s two-child cap — and it must take ownership of the damage it is causing, including the appalling levels of poverty in the UK,” he said.

Related Topics:early rebellion UK’s Starmer

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VIDEO: God’s kingdom is your birthright it’s not negotiable -Bishop Elim(Part 1)

Published

3 hours ago

November 17, 2024

Naijablitznews

Bishop Godwin Elim, the Senior Pastor at Live for Christ, aka Lifting Assembly in Abuja has said God’s Kingdom is the birthright of believers as this is not negotiable.

Naijablitznews reports Bishop Elim made this assertion on Saturday in his sermon drawing vivid examples from bible passages and real life examples.

This is part one of the series to run through the week.

Watch clip below;

BREAKING: APC Picks All 20 Chairmanship, 236 Councillorship Seats In Ogun LG Polls

Published

3 hours ago

November 17, 2024

Naijablitznews

The All Progressives Congress, APC has won all 20 Chairmanship and 236 Councillorship seats in the Ogun LG Polls.

Naijablitznews reports that the Ogun State Independent Electoral Commission (OGSIEC) on Sunday, declared all the 20 chairmanship candidates of the All Progressives Congress (APC) winners of Saturday’s local government elections conducted in the state.

The Chairman of the commission, Babatunde Osibodu also declared all 236 APC councillorship candidates as winners of the election while presenting the official results of the polls at the commission’s headquarters at Oke-Ilewo, Abeokuta, the state capital.

Osibodu said the ruling party, APC, emerged victorious across all the 20 local government areas and 236 wards in the state by polling a total of 613,156 votes cast in the exercise which witnessed major political parties like the Accord Party (AP), African Action Congress (AAC), African Democratic Congress (ADC), Action Democratic Party (ADP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC), participating.

Other political parties that participated in the exercise included the Allied Peoples Movement (APM), All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Labour Party (LP), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Social Democratic Party (SDP), Young Progressive Party (YPP), Action People’s Party (APP), Action Alliance (AA), Boot Party (BP), People’s Redemption Party (PRP), National Rescue Movement (NRM) and Zenith Labour Party (ZLP).

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BREAKING: INEC declares Aiyedatiwa of APC winner of Ondo guber election

Published

3 hours ago

November 17, 2024

Naijablitznews

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has declared Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa as the winner of the guber election conducted in Ondo State on Saturday.

Aiyedatiwa, who is the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the election.

He polled a total of 366,781 votes to defeat his closest rival in the election, Agboola Ajayi, who is the candidate of the People’s Democratic Party in the election.
The APC cleared all 18 local government areas.

While the PDP polled a total of 117,845 votes, the Labour Party (LP) polled 1,162 votes and the Zenith Labour Party (ZLP) polled 2,692 votes.

Prof Olayemi Akinwunmi announced the result of the Ondo governorship election at the State headquarters of INEC in Akure.