Rebel MP who was suspended by Labour over two-child benefit cap vote claims she was ‘bullied’ by party whips

24 July 2024, 18:26 | Updated: 24 July 2024, 21:18

Suspended Labour MP Apsana Begum speaks to Andrew Marr following the two-child benefit vote

By Kieran Kelly

@kellyjourno

A rebel MP who was suspended by Sir Keir Starmer for defying the Labour whip and voting to scrap the two-child benefit cap has told LBC she was 'bullied' by party whips.

The SNP brought an amendment to the King's Speech to scrap the cap, which limits parents' benefits to their first two children - a Tory policy.

Seven Labour rebels voted for the amendment: former Chancellor John McDonnell, Apsana Begum, Richard Burgon, Ian Byrne, Imran Hussain, Rebecca Long Bailey and Zarah Sultana.

“I was spoken to while I was in the chamber and I was spoken to again before the votes. I was shocked by the tone and the tenor of the whipping operation,” Ms Begum, the MP for Poplar and Limehouse, told LBC's Tonight with Andrew Marr.

“The weeks leading up until this point, there hadn't really been anything of this nature at all and I was contacted and I was spoken to in person, in the chamber, whilst I was waiting to speak.”

She added: “The whipping operation was very aggressive.”

Ms Begum also claimed Labour's support of her against her ex-husband - who stood against her in the election - was brought up during conversations with party whips.

Asked if she felt bullied by the whips, Ms Begum said: “Yes, it definitely felt like that. I’ve just run in an election in which my ex-husband was standing against me, I’ve been forthcoming about my experiences of domestic abuse and coercive control and I really felt my experiences were being weaponised against me in this situation and that was very shocking.

“The fact of saying, supporting me in regards to my ex-husband being discussed in the context of a whipping operation…is unacceptable.”

Her ex-husband Ehtasham Haque has called the domestic abuse claims "false and defamatory".

"I completely deny that at any stage I behaved inappropriately towards Apsana Begum during our marriage," he said.

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No10 have claimed the rebel MPs were suspended given that it was an amendment to the King's Speech.

“This wasn’t a vote against a Labour plan…it was an amendment to enhance it,” Ms Begum added.

“We do not recognise these allegations.”

A Labour Party spokesperson said: “We do not recognise these allegations.”

"The party supported Ms Begum through the difficult and sensitive private matters referenced."

A Labour source told LBC: "We would encourage anyone with a complaint to make this via our standard procedures. No evidence has been provided to the party which corroborates the serious nature of these allegations.

Another MP who was suspended by Labour for rebelling and voting to scrap the two-child benefit cap, Ms Sultana, told Global's the News Agents ‘no one spoke to me from the Whip’s Office or the Labour leadership about the vote’.

“I'm not in Parliament to play factional games. For me, this is about child poverty, and we can't lose sight of what is a real crisis in our country,” Ms Sultana told the News Agents.

“And I made it clear that I would vote for any selected amendment that called for the scrapping of the two-child benefit card. And any kind of accusation that says this is games, and this is people playing games, I have to call out.”

Jeremy Corbyn reacts to Labour rebellion over two-child benefit cap

Many Labour MPs oppose the cap, but it has been estimated that getting rid of it would cost taxpayers £3 billion per year - and the government has said they are unwilling to break their strict fiscal rules to fund new measures.

The SNP's Westminster leader Stephen Flynn said in response to the vote failing: "Tonight, the Labour Party has failed its first major test in government.

"Labour MPs had the opportunity to deliver meaningful change from years of Tory misrule by immediately lifting thousands of children out of poverty - they have made a political choice not to do so.

"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.

"The SNP will campaign vigorously for the cap to be abolished at the earliest opportunity. It is the very worst of Westminster's welfare cuts, and every day it remains more children suffer.

"The Labour government has a moral duty to go much further and faster to tackle child poverty. Scrapping the cap is the bare minimum we should expect."