It’s unusual for an early day motion to attract 30 signatures on its first day. But it happened yesterday to an EDM by Greg Pope, a Labour backbencher which taps the growing discontent among the party.

It says:  

“That this House notes that, despite assurances to the contrary, many people are being made worse off by the abolition of the 10 pence tax rate; notes with concern that this is having a disproportionate impact on people who can ill afford to be made worse off; accepts that this was not the intention of the Government but is dismayed at the response to the plight of those adversely affected; and calls on the Chancellor of the Exchequer to bring forward measures to correct this damaging change to the taxation system.”

 This is a pretty strong criticism of his own government. Pope today withdrew his EDM (which had 26 Labour signatories) on the grounds that ministers had agreed to have another look at the tax changes. But it would strongly appear that he has been sat on: hard.

 Pope just told me that he didn’t want to “cause problems” for the government or “hold a gun to its head“. He also said he would have expected 100 signatures if the EDM was left to run its course.

Co-sponsor of the motion was Fabian Hamilton, another backbencher who describes himself as a “loyalist”, moved solely by the groundswell of discontent in his Leeds constituency.

“They (Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling) don’t see that some of the most vulnerable individuals are affected by this change, people have been predicting it for ages,” he said.

“If you’re a minister on £80,000, £100,000 a year, £300 is peanuts but if you’re on £16,000 it’s an awful lot of money. We’re so out of touch, all of us, not just Labour, we forget how little money can make such a difference to people on a low income.”

The problem though - I would argue - is that a U-Turn would weigh heavily on the government’s credibility. Not least after non-doms and the capital gains tax rows.

But there’s no mistaking the strength of Hamilton’s (and others’) view on this:

“We’re the party that stands up for the poor and don’t kick the poor in the teeth, that’s the worst possible thing. Labour is supposed to exist for the most vulnerable people in the country.”

Another MP I spoke to this afternoon, Gisela Stuart, said if Labour was really concerned about the poor this was the wrong way to go about it.

For now it’s not obvious who has executed a U-Turn. Pope or the government? Noises from the Treasury suggest that it is the former.

April 3rd, 2008 in Labour | Permalink