Welfare bill revealed Labour’s new MPs have minds of their own

No 10 wrongly assumed the 2024 intake would do as they were told, now it fears they have gained a taste for rebellion

As Labour officials sounded warnings to Downing Street last month about the scale of the rebellion against the government's welfare bill, one concern was particularly stark: many of the supposedly loyal 2024 intake were among the rebels.

Officials were told not to worry, however, sources have told the Guardian. Many of those MPs had been personally selected at the general election by Morgan McSweeney and other senior advisers to Keir Starmer.