Fourteen Labour MPs Defy the Whip on the Immigration Bill
The 14 Labour MPs who voted against the government’s immigration Bill at its second reading last night have been named, among them the veteran left-wingers John McDonnell and Rebecca Long Bailey. Diane Abbott, who still sits without the Labour whip, spoke against the Bill in the debate. McDonnell said he was “appalled” at the inclusion of trafficking provisions and at “the narrative developed by those on the Labour front bench”. The Bill still passed comfortably, by 264 votes to 90, with Andy Burnham voting in favour.
Fourteen votes against, out of a parliamentary party of more than 400, is a modest rebellion by historical standards, and it settles the immediate question — the revolt that nearly eighty MPs’ letter had threatened did not materialise on the night. But the names matter: this is the Corbyn-era left, the MPs least reconciled to the party’s move rightwards on migration, and their defiance is a marker of the fault line Burnham will govern across. Abbott’s intervention, from outside the whip, framed the Bill as the latest in forty years of immigration legislation sold on the same promises and delivering the same failures. The Bill now goes to committee, where amendments — including the government’s own, to enable the deportation of the Rochdale ringleader Shabir Ahmed — will be fought over. Watch the committee stage, whether the rebellion grows at later readings, and how Burnham manages his left once in office.