Welfare Bill

I voted against the Government's heartless welfare bill - although some of the publicity suggests that I was one of a majority of Labour MPs who supported it.

I voted for Labour's amendment to the Bill. The amendment set out how Labour disagreed with the Bill, and had it passed, the Bill would not have been given its second reading.

We spent five years in Opposition winning the moral argument but losing the vote. I want Labour to look at its future policies in the round rather than have George Osborne determine our manifesto by pushing us to vote for single policies at a point in the Parliament where the Government will not just be able to change the law but also has five years to enact it.

Our new leader needs to be able to present a broad economic policy that ensures we outline policies to protect the most vulnerable but shows we have also planned to be able to fund those policies.

Many measures in the Bill we know to be wrong; abolishing child poverty targets and cuts to the sick and disabled are policies I would never support. Hackney may be achingly cool in some people's eyes but it is still achingly poor and has one of the highest levels of child poverty in the country.

Whilst it was important to outline the things in the Bill Labour oppose, there are measures we support - in some cases Labour ideas - including extra support for troubled families and three million apprenticeships.

Labour has always and will always be the party of the working people, and the party that stands up for the most vulnerable. But the best way we can stop the Tories putting through legislation like this is for us to get a Labour Government.

Even if every Labour MP had voted against the bill's second reading it would still have gone through with the Government's majority - there is no way this bill could be defeated.

The Bill now goes to committee stage, where we'll try to amend it clause by clause. Labour are putting down a large number of amendments. We'll force individual votes on the things we disagree with, and make clear what we do and don't support.

And if we don't get the changes we want, when the Bill comes back for the third reading we will have an opportunity to vote against.

In the last five years I have seen constituents hit hard by Lib Dem-Tory cuts, and it will be harder with a majority Tory Government that is removing the rungs from the ladder of opportunity. But I will continue to stand up for Hackney.