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The Parliamentary Labour Party. Divisions are no less apparent within the Parliamentary
Labour Party. The first indicator of an emerging rift obviously is found in the two Iraqi vote
rebellions. Each of these set a record for a governing party, and, when a 122 and a 139 of your
own MPs vote against you in the face of a three-line whip, it is difficult to deny that your party is
divided. Obviously, the government was able to survive these votes because of the size of its
majority—a 179-seat majority creates some margin for error and Blair has taken full advantage
of this. What is more important in this instance is whether these rebellions should be interpreted
as a sign that a pattern of PLP dissent is emerging. This is not a government that has had to deal
with rebelliousness—its MPs have remained in line, with the largest previous rebel vote being 67
opposed on welfare reform. Instead, the Labour parliamentary party had a reputation for “slavish
loyalty” to “the project” (Guardian March 5, 2003). It remains to be seen whether this mood of
revolt will spread across the policy spectrum. Evidence of other partisan developments suggest
that it will, at least in the immediate future.
There are multiple locations for discontent within Blair’s party in the House of
Commons. First, there are those who believe that their careers have progressed as far as they are
going to under this government. Among these members are those 50 or so former ministers
sitting in the Commons who see no future for themselves with Blair as leader. Then there are
those who already have been passed over for ministerial positions; they also foresee limited
opportunities under the current regime. Other loyal Labour MPs have been disappointed since
the 2001 election with the slow pace of reform. As is to be expected, many of these people are
bitter, some are opportunistic (in that they see staking new ground as their only way forward),
and many feel they have nothing to lose in opposing the prime minister. There are some visible
troublemakers, such as the Campaign Group of MPs, while other less visible, but not necessarily
Convention