LABOUR rebels suspended from the party may be readmitted if they promise to “behave themselves” – with some expected to remain out in the cold because of comments about Gaza.
Some are expected to continue to be excluded and sit as independents because Labour high command believe they have continued to be “troublemakers”, The Guardian reports.
Labour’s chief whip Alan Campbell is said to have been having one-to-one discussions with the MPs, who were kicked out after voting for the two-child benefit cap to be scrapped.
Some, including former shadow chancellor John McDonnell are expected to still be suspended after the first rebel is brought back into the parliamentary party because he has continued to upset the Labour leadership.
He was booted out for six months along with Rebecca Long-Bailey, Apsana Begum (below), Richard Burgon, Ian Byrne, Imran Hussain and Zarah Sultana in July after voting for an SNP amendment to the King’s Speech.
One senior insider told The Guardian: “They won’t get the whip back if they think they can behave themselves for two months and then start rebelling.”
Another said that others had been “making it worse for themselves” and that suspensions would be reviewed separately.
McDonnell has previously said that he hoped the whip would be restored, though his police interview under caution after a pro-Palestine march is said to have delayed the process.
Sultana is unlikely to be readmitted in the short term, according to The Guardian, because of the pinned post on her Twitter/X profile which calls on Keir Starmer to end the government’s “complicity in Israeli war crimes” by banning all arms sales to the country.
Burgon (above) is also said to be unlikely to get back in soon because of his outspoken criticism of the government on social media, while Long-Bailey is expected to be the first to return to the parliamentary party as she has kept a low profile, as has Byrne.
One Labour source told the paper: “It’s a message to stop MPs fucking about like that again in future. We have four years to make changes.
“There are various ways to make your voice heard and signal your frustration with certain decisions.”
