BRIAN Leishman losing the Labour whip was on everyone’s 2025 bingo card.
It was surprising it hadn’t come sooner, but it seems Keir Starmer, or his people at No 10, decided that a clear out was needed to enforce discipline before the start of summer recess early next week.
The Alloa and Grangemouth MP was one of the gang of four summoned to the whips’ office on Wednesday to be informed of the consequences of speaking their minds and representing their constituents.
Three others lost their positions as trade envoys. It appears the trigger was voting against the Government’s welfare bill, though given that rebellion in the end amounted to 47 MPs, there were clearly other factors in play.
One charming Labour source put it to The Times that Leishman, Rachael Maskell (below), Neil Duncan-Jordan and Chris Hinchliff were guilty of “persistent knobheadery”.
That is apparently what Starmer’s government really thinks about people who don’t want to cut benefits for the elderly and the disabled.
Leishman has done little to endear himself with the leadership by pressing them on the biggest issues in his constituency: The closure of the Grangemouth oil refinery and the potential shuttering of bus manufacturer Alexander Dennis.
He seems to be unaware that Labour MPs were selected not for their quality, brains or convictions but rather for their ability to toe the line.
Anas Sarwar also faces questions about this episode: Did he know about Leishman’s suspension or did he read about it in the papers?
A smart Scottish Labour leader would make an effort to court Leishman, in a bid to cultivate some credibility among the left-wing voters they need to win back power in Holyrood. To the SNP’s eternal relief, Sarwar is no such leader.
Starmer’s rigidity would make more sense – though it would not become any more moral – was he not such a fluid performer himself.
The fact is that Starmer agreed to gut the welfare bill because of the concerns of backbenchers, with Maskell leading a rebellion that apparently posed a real threat to the Government’s majority.
That the MP who forced this U-turn is now being punished for the ineptitude of Starmer and his team shows how weak the Prime Minister is.
Political genius that he is, the PM has also sacked four MPs who have proven themselves capable of plotting and organising just before they are given five weeks off their parliamentary duties to come up with new ways of frustrating the Government.
There will also be many more who, given a bit of time out of the Westminster bubble, will have ample opportunity to reflect on why they got into politics. For many, it won’t have been to prop up a failing, directionless and hated Prime Minister.
Starmer has no values, no strategy and if things keep going the way they are, he’ll have no power either – perhaps sooner than he might think.
