Sir Keir Starmer faces an early test of leadership amid backbench unease over his decision to suspend seven Labour MPs who backed an SNP motion to scrap the two-child benefit cap.
The Labour rebels, who are on the left of the party, had the whip removed for six months, as the new Prime Minister sent a message that dissent will not be taken lightly.
The two-child benefit cap, introduced in 2015 by the Conservatives, restricts child welfare payments to the first two children born to most families.
More than 40 Labour MPs recorded a no vote on Tuesday’s SNP motion. Ahead of the vote, many in the party made clear their wish to scrap the cap in future.
So who are the seven Labour rebels willing to defy Starmer only three weeks after his landslide election victory?
John McDonnell
The Labour veteran was Jeremy Corbyn’s right-hand man during his time in charge of the party, acting as shadow chancellor between 2015 and 2020.
The MP for Hayes and Harlington, who strongly opposed Tony Blair’s invasion of Iraq, declared in 2017 that he would be the “first socialist Labour chancellor”.
Mr McDonnell has been largely quiet since Sir Keir took charge of the party in 2020. But he criticised the leader last year, saying he had let the party’s right wing become “drunk with power” after many of his fellow colleagues on the left were barred from standing as Labour candidates.
Rebecca Long-Bailey
The MP for Salford has served as shadow business secretary under Mr Corbyn, and ran against Sir Keir for the leadership in 2020.
She initially served in Starmer’s frontbench team, but was sacked in June 2020 for re-tweeting an interview with actress Maxine Peake – which Starmer claimed contained “anti-Semitic conspiracy theories”.
Ms Long-Bailey said she had not meant to endorse all parts of the interview and said she found anti-Semitism “abhorrent”.
Zarah Sultana
The MP for Coventry South, who first won her seat in 2019, chairs the Socialist Campaign Group – the caucus of left-wing Labour MPs.
Ms Sultana was threatened with losing the Labour whip after signing a Stop the War statement which questioned Nato’s “eastward expansion” after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. But she subsequently removed her signature.
She also called her own party “institutionally Islamophobic” in 2023 following an attack ad which accused Rishi Sunak of being soft on child abusers.
She suggested on Wednesday that she was the victim of a “macho virility test” after being suspended over the two-child cap rebellion.
Richard Burgon
The Leeds East MP is another veteran of the Corbyn shadow Cabinet, serving as shadow justice secretary, only to be dismissed by Sir Keir during the leadership change in 2020.
Mr Burgon defied the leadership in November by being one of 56 Labour MPs who voted in favour of a ceasefire in Gaza, which Sir Keir had refused to back at the time.
He said he was “disappointed” by his suspension and called on Sir Keir “to come forward with a plan” on child poverty.
Imran Hussain
The Bradford East MP was one of the few Labour politicians to serve on the shadow frontbench team under both Mr Corbyn and Sir Keir.
However, Mr Hussain resigned as a shadow work minister in November over the Prime Minister’s refusal to call for a ceasefire in Gaza.
He also said he had been “deeply troubled” by his comments in an LBC interview, in which he appeared to suggest Israel was entitled to cut off water and power to Gaza.
Apsana Begum
The MP for Poplar and Limehouse, who won her seat in 2019, has also defied the leadership on a number of issues.
In 2020, Ms Begum said Labour was “in denial” about the problem of Islamophobia. She was one of the 11 MPs who initially signed a 2022 Stop the War statement questioning Nato’s legitimacy, before removing her signature.
She said she voted against the two-child benefit cap because of “rising and deepening levels of child poverty and food insecurity” in her constituency.
Ian Byrne
The MP for Liverpool West Derby, a former trade union organiser, is a member of the Socialist Campaign Group and was a big supporter of Mr Corbyn’s leadership.
Mr Byrne said he had defied the leadership on Tuesday night because experts say that the best way to “immediately impact” the problem of child poverty was to scrap the two-child cap.