Jess Phillips has said the suspended Labour MPs ''persistently undermined the government.'' The four MPs all voted against the government over the welfare reform legislation, but the safeguarding minister said the decision to suspend the whip was taken as a result of persistent breaches of discipline rather than a single rebellion. Report by Gluszczykm. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
00:00All Labour MPs are there to work for their constituents and there is a way to do it.
00:05Obviously these are decisions for the Chief Whip and I'm not across the detail of how many times these people have been spoken to
00:12or the disciplinary procedures at all and for that I am grateful.
00:16But we have to act as a team, these people were elected as Labour MPs.
00:21So the idea that somehow they care more about their constituents than others is something that I would heavily push back on.
00:28There were 40 Labour members of Parliament who voted against the Government on the Welfare Bill and only four people have lost a whip.
00:35It's nothing to do with welfare.
00:37From what I can gather, from what I can read, just like everybody else, is that there has been a persistent problem of them speaking persistently against the Government.
00:45And no Government can operate without any discipline.
00:48The idea that we can all just be going off and saying whatever we want, that's not how you govern.
