Chris Mason: Starmer’s ruthless streak on show again

You can demonstrate power with numbers in politics, but the real way to demonstrate it is in actions.

Less than three weeks on from the general election, and the prime minister has booted seven of his MPs out of the Parliamentary Labour Party.

Crikey.

That is quite the statement of authority and intent – and a brutal demonstration of his power.

A prime minister with a narrower majority, a less emphatic win, would perhaps not have dared act so boldly. But with a colossal majority, he has the scope to act ruthlessly, and put down a marker for the months ahead.

The argument his team are making is that the party had been clear it would not be prioritising the scrapping of the two-child benefit cap.

That position had been stress-tested, they argue, in the build-up to the general election and the assembly of the party’s manifesto.

And, they add, potential rebels had been told very clearly in advance of the vote that if they voted against the government position, they would, to use the Westminster jargon, have the whip withdrawn.

This means they are suspended from the parliamentary party and will sit as independent MPs for at least six months.

So why do it?

Sir Keir has previously spoken in interviews about his willingness to be ruthless to ensure Labour's success in government - you can read it in his own words here and here.

The headline from this vote could have been "government with a massive majority wins a vote by a massive margin".

That is an accurate description of precisely what did happen.

Granted, it would not have been much of a headline or much of a story, because it is entirely unsurprising.

And so, the moment would have passed without remark.

Instead, the government decided it was not going to stand for those on its own side picking a fight with it so early on, on a policy where Labour’s position was very clear.

“We can’t have Labour MPs voting against the first Labour King’s Speech in 14 years,” is how one senior figure put it to me.

But doing this has knowingly escalated and inflamed the issue for those on the left.

Of those given the boot, some are the leading faces and voices of Jeremy Corbyn’s shadow cabinet.

His shadow chancellor John McDonnell, his shadow justice secretary Richard Burgon, his shadow business secretary Rebecca Long-Bailey.

And then there is 30-year-old Zarah Sultana, who has a colossal social media following – half a million followers on TikTok and eight million likes for her videos.

They all now join Mr Corbyn as independent MPs.

“Shameful” and “a shocker” are two reactions I have heard from allies on the left.

Parallels are being drawn with a far bigger rebellion Tony Blair’s government faced in its opening months in 1997.

You can read our report on that here. No MPs lost the whip then.

Does this nip future potential rebellions in the bud? Or store up trouble for later, when the novelty value and honeymoon period of a Labour government has worn off?

Who knows. Potentially both.

It is the first big flashpoint for the new government – and one Sir Keir Starmer has chosen to walk towards.