Senior Labour MPs behind the welfare rebellion are reviving a soft-left caucus to influence the upcoming budget, a move expected to unsettle No 10 further.
The Tribune group will be led by former cabinet minister Louise Haigh and former whip Vicky Foxcroft, who quit to vote against welfare cuts, in an effort to give their party's wing an organizing voice.
Important actors in Lucy Powell's successful deputy leadership campaign are part of the group, which intends to draw in over 100 MPs to revitalize the caucus.
They also include Debbie Abrahams, the chair of the work and pensions select committee, Sarah Owen, the chair of the women and equalities committee, and former minister Justin Madders. Yuan Yang and Beccy Cooper, two additional new MPs, will also serve as the group's stewards.
Leading members of the group have been advocating for Labour to confront Reform and the resurgent Green party with a far more daring and overtly progressive strategy.
Powell, who is referred to as a "natural ally" of the group, sent a heartfelt message on Wednesday morning praising Zohran Mamdani, the newly elected mayor of New York, saying the party might learn from his communication style.
“His victory shows that boldness and a story of economic change in the interests of the many not the few, defeats the politics of division and despair,”
she tweeted.
Yvette Cooper and previous Labour leadership contender Owen Smith were among the members of Tribune, a club that was founded in the 1960s and was reorganized by Labour MP Clive Efford in 2017 under Jeremy Corbyn's leadership. However, it was mostly dormant under Starmer and had little success under Corbyn.
MPs claimed that Efford had been convinced to step aside so that new MPs could revitalize the group and improve its organizing power, with the primary goal being to increase pressure on the upcoming budget to remove the two-child benefit cap.
“Clive has done a great job of ticking it over for last eight years and with new intakes heavily involved, there is a big appetite to get people together with similar values and ideas to debate issues and influence in the same way other groups do. Soft left has not been organised well for years so it is desperately needed,”
one MP involved in the
group’s relaunch said.
The association will now borrow a much more" muscular"
strategy, according to one MP, who claimed that it would be" much
more forcefully embedded in the center left, gauging
the inputs and committed to organizing in the PLP( the administrative Labour
party)."
Compared to the traditional left sect of the party, the
Socialist Campaign Group, which has members like Diane Abbott and John
McDonnell who were close to Corbyn's leadership, the group is anticipated to
draw a far larger number of MPs from the 2024 input.
What policy demands is the caucus likely to push?
The side formed by elderly Labour MPs who led the weal rebellion is likely to push for a set of policy demands concentrated on guarding and expanding social weal vittles. Opposition to further cuts in disability benefits and Universal Credit, aiming to guard vulnerable groups.
Increased investment in social care, casing, and public services to address poverty and inequality. programs promoting fair stipend, accessible healthcare, affordable childcare, and long- term care support. Calls for stronger protections for impaired people and reforms designed to reduce fiscal difficulty among low- income families.
These policy precedences align with the side’s soft- left positioning within Labour and reflect their commitment to a defensive weak state, challenging austerity and championing for government responsibility in supporting socially and economically underprivileged populations.
This group now seeks to revive an important side within the party’s soft left wing to impact unborn budget opinions and wider policy, continuing to push for further defensive and inclusive social welfare programs. Their conduct has formerly unsettled the government and No 10, demonstrating their capability to challenge party leadership on crucial social issues.