{"id":269278,"date":"2025-07-17T12:20:12","date_gmt":"2025-07-17T12:20:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/269278\/"},"modified":"2025-07-17T12:20:12","modified_gmt":"2025-07-17T12:20:12","slug":"labour-mp-suspended-for-opposing-disability-cuts-will-keep-speaking-for-invisible-in-society-labour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/269278\/","title":{"rendered":"Labour MP suspended for opposing disability cuts will keep speaking for \u2018invisible in society\u2019 | Labour"},"content":{"rendered":"

An MP suspended from Labour<\/a> for spearheading a rebellion against disability benefit cuts has stood by her actions and says she will \u201ccontinue to advocate for my constituents\u201d.<\/p>\n

Rachael Maskell<\/a>, the MP for York Central, told the BBC that Keir Starmer had been wrong to suspend her and three colleagues<\/a> and that the party needed to be a \u201cbroad church that listens to each other\u201d.<\/p>\n

Speaking to the BBC Radio 4 Today programme, she said by speaking up against government cuts to disability benefits she was advocating for people who were \u201cinvisible in our society\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t see myself as a ringleader, I joined with other colleagues who had similar concerns about this legislation. We ultimately do believe that cutting money from some of the poorest in our society is not what a Labour government should be doing,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course I brought to parliament the voices of my constituents, in fact I told stories within the debate about their fragile mental health and the implications of losing money and the reforms would have on them.<\/p>\n

\u201cQuite frankly, disabled people are very invisible in our society, they don\u2019t have agency and voice. What was so important about that debate was the recognition of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ministers U-turned over the bulk of their planned cuts<\/a> to disability benefits earlier this month after a major backbench rebellion threatened the government\u2019s majority.<\/p>\n

Pressed on whether she intended to change her stance after being suspended, Maskell said she would \u201ccontinue to advocate for my constituents\u201d. She said Starmer had been wrong to suspend the whip from her and three colleagues, saying: \u201cOn this occasion, I don\u2019t think he\u2019s got it right.\u201d<\/p>\n

The other three suspended Labour MPs are Neil Duncan-Jordan, Chris Hinchliff<\/a> and Brian Leishman, who are from the 2024 intake. All four MPs disciplined were among the 47 who rebelled against<\/a> the government\u2019s welfare bill even after major concessions were made.<\/p>\n

A Labour source said on Wednesday that the MPs had been disciplined for being \u201cpersistent rebels\u201d.<\/p>\n

Jess Phillips, a Home Office minister, said the MPs should not be surprised by the action against them and that \u201cwe have to act as a team in order to achieve something\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe 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\u2019t know what you expect,\u201d Phillips told broadcasters.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow I speak out against things I do not like, both internally and sometimes externally, all the time. There is a manner of doing that that is the right way to go about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Maskell told the BBC that \u201cthe chief whip made it very clear to me \u2026 that my work on the disabled people reforms were the reason why I was being suspended from the Labour party\u201d.<\/p>\n

She added that she had been suspended for her actions relating to \u201cthe social security changes, not for other measures\u201d. Maskell has been a vocal critic of the government in a range of areas.<\/p>\n

In response to speculation that she could defect from Labour to join a rival leftwing party, such as the one being formed by Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana<\/a>, Maskell said: \u201cNo no no, I\u2019m Labour through and through, I support the Labour party, I\u2019ve been a member for so long, I\u2019ve walked the streets, knocked the doors all those years and I want to see the Labour government really succeed.\u201d<\/p>\n

She called for \u201cmore listening\u201d from ministers and \u201cbetter reach-out to backbenchers to ensure that we are the safeguards of the government\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An MP suspended from Labour for spearheading a rebellion against disability benefit cuts has stood by her actions…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":269279,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[13,12,14],"class_list":{"0":"post-269278","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-stories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114868546621549768","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269278","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=269278"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269278\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/269279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=269278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=269278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=269278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}