Labour MP calls for ‘discipline’ so party never returns to ‘moral destruction’ of Corbyn era

A Labour MP has issued a rallying call to colleagues and party activists on the need to remain “incredibly disciplined and organised” so that “people around Jeremy Corbyn” never again take the party on a path towards “moral and electoral destruction.”

Luke Akehurst, newly elected MP for North Durham, told a packed meeting of the Progressive Britain and Labour To Win, of his immense pride at the change brought about to his party over the past four years, leading to an election win “on a scale that we could never, never imagined was possible.”

He speaking on the same night that seven left-wing MPs defied the Government by backing an amendment to scrap the two-child benefit cap and were subsequently told they had lost the whip.

Get The Jewish News Daily Edition by email and never miss our top stories Free Sign Up

Akehurst warned there were also some on the left who would still actually want Corbyn running as a leader at an election “for the third or fourth time.”

He added: “They were wrong about us failing electorally… they want us to fail as a government, they will be undermining it.

More in Labour

June 23, 2026

Starmer brought change to Labour that many thought was impossible

By Rebecca Filer

June 19, 2026

Andy Burnham’s steadfast relationship with the Jewish community

By Mark Adlestone

June 17, 2026

MPs back new legislation paving the way for ban on Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps

By Lee Harpin

“They will be seeking to make every different foreign policy decision, or economic decision, or public spending decision into a massive betrayal because that is what they say about every Labour government.

“We have to be incredibly disciplined and organised.”

Speaking to 40 Labour MPs at the event, along with around 150 other supporters, he stressed the need for discipline in support of the Starmer project from the parliamentary Labour Party.

“As the whips told us on the first briefing session that we had, ‘Just go in and vote Labour every single time’,” said Akehurst.

Many MPs arrived at Tuesday’s Progressive Britain have been present in the Commons for the vote  on an SNP amendment to scrap the two-child benefit cap.

Apsana Begum, Richard Burgon, Ian Byrne, Imran Hussain, Rebecca Long-Bailey, John McDonnell and Zarah Sultana have been suspended from the parliamentary party for six months, after which their position will be reviewed, as a result of their support for amendment.

The Prime Minister easily saw off his first Commons rebellion with the Government comfortably defeating calls to scrap the cap.The House of Commons voted 363 to 103, majority 260, to reject the amendment tabled in the name of SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn.

The cap, introduced in 2015 by then-Conservative chancellor George Osborne, restricts child welfare payments to the first two children born to most families.The government have announced a wider review of the reasons for child poverty, having told voter before the election that the scrapping the cap was too costly for current tightly controlled spending plans.

To cheers Akehurst urged the room full of new MPs, councillors and campaigners to recall the years under Corbyn’s leadership which had led the party to the point where “the Labour Party was done.”

Akehurst then focused on the “moral destruction” that tainted the party as a result of the scourge of antisemitism.

“Where very good people, because they were from the Jewish community, or close allies of it, were literally driven out of the party,” he recalled.

“And everyone who stayed in the Labour Party was faced with a moral dilemma about whether they were doing the right thing.”

He then recalled the role organisations such as Progress, Labour To Win and others had played in acting as a galvanising force for those who wished to “fly the flag for social democratic values and decency with the Labour Party” leading to the election of Keir Starmer as leader.

“We ended up winning inside the party,” said Akehurst. “Changing the party, and that enabled us in four short years to be ready to win the argument amongst the wider public and win on a scale we could have never, never imagined.”

But the MP stressed the need for iron-fisted discipline as the government set about the business of changing the country” with around 40 pieces of legislation before the House of Commons.

Akhurst said he was “so proud to be part of a movement” that had led to an emphatic victory at the election and was now working “to build a Britain that is decent, fairer and more socially just.”

He added:”You have all been fantastic over a perioid, not just five or six weeks of the election campaign, or four years of this parliament.

“You kept the faith in social democratic values for a whole very, very difficult decade.

“And we are going to need you in good times and bad. This is not something done by one guy in No.10, or 411 people in the PLP.

“Ths is about a movement of hundreds of thousands of people working to build a Britain that is decent, fairer, most socially just Britain.”

Also speaking at the event, which was hosted by the Burson communications agency, was newly elected Labour NEC representative Jane Thomas,

The executive director of Progressive Britain is Adam Langleben, who previously worked at the Jewish Leadership Council, and served as national secretary of the Jewish Labour Movement.

Among those from the community to attend were JLM’s Mike Katz, Michael Rubin of Labour Friends of Israel, councillor Joshua Garfield and mental health campaigner and former MP Luciana Berger.

Others at the event, where MP Bill Esterson also spoke, included respected Brent Council cabinet member Shama Tatler, along with many newly elected MPs.