The Politics of Playing Dead

So the government scraped through its welfare vote – but not without drama. The headlines are full of it: Starmer humiliated, Labour in disarray, biggest rebellion yet. You’d think he’d turned up in a Margaret Thatcher wig and tried to bring back the poll tax. But take a step back, breathe in the spin – and exhale the reality.

What actually happened was a textbook exercise in controlled detonation. Starmer’s front bench knew full well there’d be backlash from the left – you don’t wade into disability benefits and work capability assessments without setting off every moral alarm bell in your party. But instead of panicking, they did what any competent strategist does: they offered just enough meat to the rebels to give them something to chew on.

The result? The so-called "rebel alliance" got to thump their chests and parade a few scalps – most notably the shelving of the PIP changes – while the government still walked away with its bill intact. Slimmer, yes. Hollowed out, probably. But still standing. And all those who voted against? They now get to brandish their credentials as defenders of the vulnerable, without having actually blocked the bill.

This wasn’t Starmer losing control – it was Starmer letting the engine backfire, so it looked like he wasn’t driving. The PIP reforms were kicked into the long grass, pending a review, and lo – the rebellion melts. The projected savings shrivel from £5 billion to a rather soggier £2 billion, and somehow we’re supposed to see this as a strategic failure?

The right, bless them, are spinning this like they’ve caught Labour stealing lunch money from pensioners. Labour's class betrayal! The working man stabbed in the back! Conveniently forgetting their own party once tried to charge the disabled for spare bedrooms and make the poor pay for austerity with their teeth. Let’s not pretend the Tories have suddenly found a conscience down the back of the George Osborne sofa.

The truth is this: Starmer’s team knew they’d take a hit, but the aim was never to pass the bill unscathed. The aim was to pass it. And in politics, as in warfare, victory isn’t always clean – sometimes it looks like a retreat until you realise you've held the field.

So while the Daily Mail’s frothing away about chaos and betrayal, Starmer has ticked a box, dulled a rebellion, and moved on. The left got their moment, the right got their headlines, and the centrists, as ever, got their way – quietly, methodically, and with just enough noise to make it look like they’d lost.