Labour's Rosie Duffield will not be voting against her party in the upcoming Winter Fuel Payment vote in the House of Commons next week. Ms Duffield will abstain instead.
Ms Duffield told Times Radio that "this government has made it very clear that Labour MPs who vote against this new government, will be punished and have the whip removed".
Ms Duffield told Times Radio:
I won't be voting against because this government has made it very clear that Labour MPs who vote against this new government, will be punished and have the whip removed, but I will be showing that I don't agree with them by abstaining, and I know a few colleagues are doing the same.
There's lots of internal politics that I can't quite be as straightforward in my response to you as I'd like to be, but I think if you think about the way that all parties, particularly one as big as mine is now, are divided into sort of groups. I don't want those with my beliefs not to be represented in the Labour party, so in order to stay in the party and make sure that people like me are represented on this occasion I've decided to abstain.
There's all kind of things that go through your head. You have to weigh this up very carefully. I know not everybody understands the toings and froings of parliament and parliamentary parties, and that's absolutely understandable, but I do know what I'm doing now after 7 years, so this is the right way for me to show that I don't agree with the government on this occasion.
https://twitter.com/TimesRadio/status/1832459396149895462
