On Wednesday 23rd September, the youngest Indian-origin MP was sacked from the Labour Party after breaking the party’s whip by voting against the second reading of a controversial armed forces Bill.
23-year-old half Punjabi Nadia Whittome was sacked alongside two other junior shadow ministers Beth Winter and Olivia Blake who defied the whip and had earlier joined with Jeremy Corbyn and 14 other Socialist Campaign group MPs.
Following the announcement, Nadia released a letter on Twitter providing an explanation for her reason of defying the whip. She wrote, “It strikes me that if a piece of legislation has had concerns raised by the Equality and Human Rights Commission, the British Legion, Amnesty International and other organisations on the front line of supporting veterans and defending human rights, we need to stop and ask ourselves why.
“This Bill flatly contradicts the UN Committee Against Torture (UNCAT) – a treaty which the UK has ratified – which states that all victims of torture or ill-treatment, regardless of when the violation occurred, must be able to access their rights to remedy and to obtain redress. It often takes years, or even decades, to properly process and come to terms with abusive and traumatic experiences and to then find the courage and resource to come forward. I cannot, in good conscience, vote in a way that would make this process even harder for someone in such a terrible situation.”
Labour MPs were required to abstain on the overseas operations bill as the legislation aims to introduce a presumption against prosecution for British soldiers serving abroad. During a debate on the bill, the defence secretary, Ben Wallace, also accused Labour of taking Britain into “illegal wars” when the party was last in power. The group of rebels also included John McDonnell, Diane Abbott and Rebecca Long-Bailey. The proposed presumption against prosecution applies to offences such as war crimes and torture and critics say it breaches international humanitarian law.
The Bill was passed at second reading by 332 to 77, with the Scottish National Party and Liberal Democrats joining the 18 Labour rebels in voting against.
