Speaking up for the vulnerable cost me the Labour Party whip, but it’s what Jesus would do

Rachael Maskell MP was suspended from the Labour Party after opposing the Welfare Reform Bill, which she said would introduce “Dickensian cuts belonging to a different era and a different party”. She does not regret standing up for poor and the marginalised, she says

Over the last few weeks, I have had to dig deep to understand why, in speaking truth to power, I have found myself suspended from the Parliamentary Labour Party.

But things happen for a reason.

Over the last decade, there have been many times in Parliament when I have had to speak to my whips about the lines I feel unable to cross. And I am sure that this will not be the last.