Who are the 48 genuinely left-wing Labour MPs?

On the 20th of July 2015 a significant number of Labour Party MPs rebelled against the absolutely ludicrous stance set by the interim leader Harriet Harman, that Labour should not oppose the brutal welfare cuts being inflicted on vulnerable people, children and the working poor by the Tory government.

Harriet Harman's stance that Labour should avoid opposing the Tories' ideologically driven and economically illiterate austerity agenda because they need to appeal to Tory voters is absolutely crackers. Only 24% of the electorate voted for the Tories, while 34% were too apathetic or too disillusioned to vote at all. Surely it would make more sense for Labour to try to strongly differentiate themselves from the Tories in order to appeal to the huge numbers of people out there who have lost faith in politics because "they're all the same aren't they?" rather than making themselves ever more indistinguishable from the Tories?

Of the four Labour leadership candidates Jeremy Corbyn was the only one to vote against these harsh ideologically driven austerity measures against the poorest and most vulnerable people in society (which are being imposed in order to hand even more tax cuts to corporations and the extremely wealthy). Who knows what the other three candidates must have been thinking when they decided not to oppose legislation that will remove the legal obligation on the UK government to reduce child poverty?. Do they really think that more children growing up in poverty is a price worth paying to go along with Harriet Harman's lunatic prescription of even more of the ridiculous austerity-lite rubbish that lost Labour the last election?

It is no surprise that the left-leaning social democratic parties (SNP, Plaid Cymru and the Green Party) voted against these measures, but it's also worth noting that the Liberal Democrats and the notoriously right-wing DUP also voted against it too.

The fact that Jeremy Corbyn was the only Labour Leadership candidate to defy Harriet Harman's insanity should send an incredibly strong message to Labour Party members and supporters: If you want a Labour Party that is going to stand up and fight against Tory barbarity against the poorest and most vulnerable people in society, then vote for Jeremy Corbyn. However if you want a Labour Party that is going to position itself somewhere to the right of the Liberal Democrats and the DUP(!), then vote for one of the three Blairite candidates.

This is the list of the 48 Labour MPs who voted against (which contains the names of most of the genuinely left-wing Labour MPs). 

• Diane Abbott
• Debbie Abrahams
• David Anderson
• Richard Burgon
• Dawn Butler
• Ann Clwyd
• Jeremy Corbyn
• Geraint Davies
• Peter Dowd
• Paul Flynn
• Mary Glindon
• Roger Godsiff
• Helen Goodman
• Margaret Greenwood
• Louise Haigh
• Carolyn Harris
• Sue Hayman
• Kelvin Hopkins
• Imran Hussain
• Gerald Jones
• Helen Jones
• Sir Gerald Kaufman
• Sadiq Khan
• David Lammy
• Ian Lavery
• Clive Lewis
• Rebecca Long Bailey
• Andy McDonald
• John McDonnell
• Liz McInnes
• Rob Marris
• Rachael Maskell
• Michael Meacher
• Ian Mearns
• Madeleine Moon
• Grahame Morris
• Kate Osamor
• Teresa Pearce
• Marie Rimmer
• Paula Sherriff
• Tulip Siddiq
• Dennis Skinner
• Cat Smith
• Jo Stevens
• Graham Stringer
• David Winnick
• Iain Wright
• Daniel Zeichner

I'm sure that there are many more Labour MPs who really wanted to vote against this barbaric Tory attack on the poor and vulnerable but abstained out of some misguided loyalty to the party hierarchy, but it appears that the only way these other Labour MPs can be freed to vote with their consciences, rather than according to the wishes of the Blairites who still dictate the party line, is the election of Jeremy Corbyn as Labour Party leader.

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