Four Labour MPs who were suspended for voting against the Government on the two-child benefit cap have had the whip restored.
Richard Burgon, Ian Byrne, Imran Hussain and Rebecca Long-Bailey were among seven Labour MPs who were suspended from the parliamentary party in July for backing an SNP-led amendment to scrap the cap.
It is understood that the whip remains suspended for the other three MPs, but it will be reviewed again in the future.
They are former shadow chancellor and Hayes and Harlington MP John McDonnell, Poplar and Limehouse MP Apsna Begum, and Coventry South MP Zarah Sultana. They will remain sitting as Independents.
Mr McDonnell said he was “disappointed” that Ms Begum and Ms Sultana continued to be suspended but was “relaxed” about his own situation.
“Pleased my colleagues got whip back but disappointed Zarah and Apsana haven’t yet,” he wrote.
“Relaxed about my own position as I’ve made clear I don’t expect whip back until we know whether police are to charge me following recent Palestinian demo after which I was interviewed under caution.”
Pleased my colleagues got whip back but disappointed Zarah & Apsana haven’t yet. Relaxed about my own position as I’ve made clear I don’t expect whip back until we know whether police are to charge me following recent Palestinian demo after which I was interviewed under caution.
— John McDonnell (@johnmcdonnellMP) February 5, 2025
He and former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn were voluntarily interviewed by police after the demonstration in London in January.
The amendment to the King’s Speech to scrap the two-child benefit cap last summer was Sir Keir Starmer’s first Commons rebellion. The Government comfortably defeated the vote, but more than 40 Labour MPs recorded no vote.
The House of Commons voted 363 to 103, majority 260, to reject the amendment tabled in the name of SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn.
The cap, introduced in 2015 by then-Conservative chancellor George Osborne, restricts child welfare payments to the first two children born to most families.
