Labour MPs have called for a reset in relations with Downing Street as the fallout from the welfare rebellion threatens to cause lasting damage.
A late-night climbdown on welfare cuts from Number 10 may have seen off the threat of Sir Keir Starmer’s first major Commons defeat, with rebels suggesting they now expect the Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill to pass its first hurdle on July 1.
But speaking to the PA news agency, a number of Labour backbenchers expressed deeper frustration with how Downing Street has handled its backbenchers since last year’s election.
One warned that discontent and low morale among MPs would “continue to fester” without a “wider reset” in relations between Number 10 and the Parliamentary Labour Party after “a year of poor party management”.
Another accused decision-makers in Government of operating as an “exclusive club” and showing “disregard” for both backbenchers and experts outside Westminster.
They told PA: “I think the Government have got to stop pretending they know everything and start listening, because they might learn something.”
Several backbenchers pointed to the Prime Minister’s words at a press conference on Wednesday, in which he referred to keeping a “focus on the change that we want to bring about” rather than the “noises off”.
Although Government sources suggested Sir Keir was talking in more general terms, rebels have taken his “noises off” comment as referring to them.
One said: “A lot of colleagues are sickened at language being used, from the PM’s ‘noises off’ to the senior source saying they thought Keir and Morgan (McSweeney, the Prime Minister’s chief of staff) had cleansed the party of self-indulgent rubbish.”
But their frustration is not shared by all Labour backbenchers, with others suggesting Friday’s U-turn on welfare cuts shows Downing Street is willing to listen.
One told PA: “They’re a new team, they’re a year in and occasionally teams do need to have a moment where things come to a head and they learn.”
Arguing that some backbenchers needed to “chill out and have a cup of tea”, they added they thought the Prime Minister had “clocked that it’s important that we work as part of a team.
“All of us want him to succeed and all of us want the Government to succeed,” they said.
One rebel said that he remains opposed to the bill and described the welfare system in the UK as “in a mess”.
Dr Simon Opher, who represents Stroud, said in a statement that he is glad the Government “are listening”, but that the changes “do not tackle the eligibility issues that are at the heart of many of the problems with PIP”.
“The Bill should be scrapped and we should start again and put the needs of disabled people at the centre of the process,” he said.
A Number 10 spokesman insisted on Friday that the Prime Minister “remains fully committed to engaging with parliamentarians”.
