Adam Hart
Guest Reporter
Keir Starmer’s whips office was dealt its first major blow this week when a whopping 69 Labour MPs abstained on a high-profile vote on Chancellor Reeves’ inheritance tax hike on farmers.
On Wednesday the Conservatives used their opposition day to force a vote on Labour’s deeply unpopular plan to tax farmers’ assets over £1million at 20 per cent when they die.
The move prompted 20,000 angry farmers to gridlock central London on November 19, but the government doubled down saying it was a ‘fair and balanced way’ to plug the £22billion black hole.
Kemi Badenoch’s motion to scrap the changes to inheritance tax- widely labelled the ‘family farm tax’- was defeated comfortably by 339 noes to 181 ayes, a majority of 158.
With such a large majority, Labour was never likely to lose the vote.
But as many Labour backbench MPs would not have known of Reeves’ tax hike before her budget, this vote forced them to support or oppose it publicly.
The only other option was to abstain, ie not vote. Commentators often include abstainers when talking about party dissent as by abstaining they are declining to support the government.
Of course, some MPs may have just had more important engagements to attend, but this can’t be true of such a large number of abstainers.
It will be a disappointing result for Labour whips to see such large numbers not supporting the government.
The large number of abstainers also drew furious reaction from voters, with many labelling the MPs as spineless for not standing up for their rural constituents.
GB News has crunched the data and generated a map showing the Labour MPs who abstained on the vote.
Full list of Labour MPs who did not vote:
Rural
Other
This comes after a second protest has been confirmed for December 11 in the UK’s four capitals.
Gareth Wyn Jones, Welsh celebrity farmer, has confirmed his attendance, calling for tractors to descend on UK town centres.
The protest organiser Liz Webster of Save British Farming campaign group has said to ‘expect chaos’ and more tractors than last time.
Find Out More...
On Wednesday the Conservatives used their opposition day to force a vote on Labour’s deeply unpopular plan to tax farmers’ assets over £1million at 20 per cent when they die.
The move prompted 20,000 angry farmers to gridlock central London on November 19, but the government doubled down saying it was a ‘fair and balanced way’ to plug the £22billion black hole.
Kemi Badenoch’s motion to scrap the changes to inheritance tax- widely labelled the ‘family farm tax’- was defeated comfortably by 339 noes to 181 ayes, a majority of 158.
With such a large majority, Labour was never likely to lose the vote.
But as many Labour backbench MPs would not have known of Reeves’ tax hike before her budget, this vote forced them to support or oppose it publicly.
The only other option was to abstain, ie not vote. Commentators often include abstainers when talking about party dissent as by abstaining they are declining to support the government.
Of course, some MPs may have just had more important engagements to attend, but this can’t be true of such a large number of abstainers.
It will be a disappointing result for Labour whips to see such large numbers not supporting the government.
The large number of abstainers also drew furious reaction from voters, with many labelling the MPs as spineless for not standing up for their rural constituents.
GB News has crunched the data and generated a map showing the Labour MPs who abstained on the vote.
Full list of Labour MPs who did not vote:
Rural
- Tonia Antoniazzi / Gower
- Catherine Fookes / Monmouthshire
- Amanda Hack / North West Leicestershire
- Chris Hinchliff / North East Hertfordshire
- Henry Tufnell / Mid and South Pembrokeshire
- Steve Witherden / Montgomeryshire and Glyndŵr
Other
- Heidi Alexander / Swindon South
- Douglas Alexander / Lothian East
- Antonia Bance / Tipton and Wednesbury
- Chris Bloore / Redditch
- Julia Buckley / Shrewsbury
- Maureen Burke / Glasgow North East
- Liam Byrne / Birmingham Hodge Hill and Solihull North
- Dan Carden / Liverpool Walton
- Feryal Clark / Enfield North
- Lizzi Collinge / Morecambe and Lunesdale
- Yvette Cooper / Pontefract, Castleford and Knottingley
- Stella Creasy / Walthamstow
- Alex Davies-Jones / Pontypridd
- Anneliese Dodds / Oxford East
- Maria Eagle / Liverpool Garston
- Sarah Edwards / Tamworth
- Patricia Ferguson / Glasgow West
- Mary Kelly Foy / City of Durham
- James Frith / Bury North
- Gill Furniss / Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough
- Louise Haigh / Sheffield Heeley
- Fabian Hamilton / Leeds North East
- John Healey / Rawmarsh and Conisbrough
- Meg Hillier / Hackney South and Shoreditch
- Leigh Ingham / Stafford
- Dan Jarvis / Barnsley North
- Diana Johnson / Kingston upon Hull North and Cottingham
- Kim Johnson / Liverpool Riverside
- Sarah Jones / Croydon West
- Mike Kane / Wythenshawe and Sale East
- Stephen Kinnock / Aberafan Maesteg
- Sonia Kumar / Dudley
- Peter Kyle / Hove and Portslade
- David Lammy / Tottenham
- Simon Lightwood / Wakefield and Rothwell
- Kerry McCarthy / Bristol East
- Pat McFadden / Wolverhampton South East
- Alison McGovern / Birkenhead
- Jim McMahon / Oldham West, Chadderton and Royton
- Ed Miliband / Doncaster North
- Ian Murray / Edinburgh South
- Luke Myer / Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland
- Lisa Nandy / Wigan
- Kate Osborne / Jarrow and Gateshead East
- Taiwo Owatemi / Coventry North West
- Stephanie Peacock / Barnsley South
- Jess Phillips / Birmingham Yardley
- Luke Pollard / Plymouth Sutton and Devonport
- Gregor Poynton / Livingston
- Angela Rayner / Ashton-under-Lyne
- Rachel Reeves / Leeds West and Pudsey
- Jonathan Reynolds / Stalybridge and Hyde
- Marie Rimmer / St Helens South and Whiston
- Matt Rodda / Reading Central
- Tulip Siddiq / Hampstead and Highgate
- Cat Smith / Lancaster and Wyre
- Keir Starmer / Holborn and St Pancras
- Kirsteen Sullivan / Bathgate and Linlithgow
- Marie Tidball / Penistone and Stocksbridge
- Derek Twigg / Widnes and Halewood
- Michelle Welsh / Sherwood Forest
- Matt Western / Warwick and Leamington
- Steve Witherden / Montgomeryshire and Glyndŵr
- Rosie Wrighting / Kettering
This comes after a second protest has been confirmed for December 11 in the UK’s four capitals.
Gareth Wyn Jones, Welsh celebrity farmer, has confirmed his attendance, calling for tractors to descend on UK town centres.
The protest organiser Liz Webster of Save British Farming campaign group has said to ‘expect chaos’ and more tractors than last time.
Find Out More...