WELFARE CAP VOTE tonight. How many Labour MPs will vote against?

[frumpity33higswash]

I assume some Labour MPs will vote against and the odd Lib-dem may abstain. But there will not be a real revolt. Time will tell.

In fairness they have probably voted against 99.9% of every government policy since 2010, including Tax Cuts, Council Tax freezes and heaven knows what other ‘benefits’ to the nation, so give them a consistency break on this subject.

The Sun on Sunday sez (and no I don’t pay for it), that Labour’s Rachel Reeves told a meeting of Christians on the Left “it will be much better if we can say all the changes the Government has introduced we can reverse and all benefits can be universal” – so what they say now on their cuts, increased spending and taxes, means nothing until after the 2015 General Election - as like 2010 they will just say as little or as much as they NEED to, in order to win votes.

Only 13 back benchers rebelled. Wasn't a structural welfare cap actually mentioned by Milliband last year?

Actually in trying to be fair on Labour benefits caps objections, it appears I was being rather unfair (sorry), as Miliband and Labour as a party policy, was looking at various ‘reforms’ in 2012, possibly earlier.

www.theguardian.com/politics/2012/oct/02/labour-cuts-welfare-liam-byrne
“Byrne said the "zero-based review" that Ed Miliband would conduct if Labour won the 2015 general election would look at the "balance" between universal and targeted benefits.”

"There has always been a balance in the welfare state between universal benefits and targeted benefits and I'm afraid as part of Ed's zero-based review that balance has got to be looked at, but the chief focus has got to be on getting as many people into jobs as possible. It's good for living standards, it's good for growth and it's good for tax."

“Byrne also used the interview to call for a government rethink on its plans to set one national benefits cap, saying it would make "much more sense to have a different cap in different parts of the country".

Quite what all that meant and would it need a new quango to decide which region gets what, I dunno.