Keir Starmer has suspended four Labour MPs and removed trade envoy roles from a further three for tabling amendments and voting against the government. The latest rebellion over the Universal Credit (UC) health element cut triggered Rachael Maskell, Neil Duncan‑Jordan, Brian Leishman, and Chris Hinchcliff having the whip removed. So, enter Jess Phillips to be Starmer’s nodding dog.

Sycophants – or you’re out

Apparently, Labour MPs are supposed to behave like those nodding dogs that people have in cars, mindlessly voting through cuts that would bring hundreds of thousands of disabled people into poverty. And Jess Phillips MP is seems to be looking for a promotion from nodding dog to chief lapdog with her defence of the suspensions.

She said:

We were elected as a team under a banner and under a manifesto. And we have to seek to work together. And if you are acting in a manner that is to undermine the ability of the government to deliver those things, I don’t know what you expect. To govern, you can’t have 650 people all shooting off in different ways. And the country wouldn’t thank us for that either

As well as presenting herself as yes-man-in-chief, Phillips’ comment is backwards. There was no mention of cuts to disabled people’s benefits in the Labour manifesto. In fact, Labour pledged to support disabled people and consult them on changes. But then Reeves announced huge cuts to disabled people’s support in her spring statement. On top of that, there were only two references to welfare in Labour’s manifesto and no mention of benefits.

Suspended MPs Maskell and Duncan-Jordan also abstained on the vote for the winter fuel cut, another ‘rebellion’ cited against them. But that cut was also not in the Labour manifesto. So ironically, it is the rebelling Labour MPs that are upholding the manifesto, not the government.

They should be commended

In fact, many people would consider it to be the job of Labour MPs to vote against legislation that is directly against the party’s values – not be lapdogs like Jess Phillips. They are meant to represent their constituents. And 74% of people are against cuts to disabled people’s support where they are unable to work.

And according to Phillips, you can’t have MPs expressing their own opinions in parliament, because that’s “shooting off in different ways”. Even if those MPs are protecting disabled people and vulnerable pensioners from a cruel Tory-esque government. And of course, Labour MPs are supposed to campaign on issues that matter to their constituents and lobby the government to make changes. Broadly speaking, politics isn’t about getting into line, it’s a battle place of ideas. But in the words of a Labour source, standing up for disabled people is “persistent knobheadery”.

Authoritarian – with Jess Phillips backing it up

Starmer is also establishing himself to be perhaps the most authoritarian prime minister in Labour’s history. After booting out numerous left-wing MPs from even standing in the 2024 election, the Labour leader has now suspended 11 MPs for simply voting against the government. That has all happened in one year, despite the fact that not a single Labour MP had the whip removed for voting against the government from 1968 to 2024.

Now Starmer has also suspended Diane Abbott for talking about out her lived experience as a black woman (who experiences the most abuse in parliament). She pointed out other groups who experience discrimination might not so readily because strangers in the street know you’re a black person, when they might not know you’re gay.

Jess Phillips should be ashamed for supporting Starmer.

Featured image via the Canary

By James Wright

This post was originally published on Canary.