Labour MPs defy three-line whip
Forty-seven Labour MPs ignored a three-line whip to vote against the Government over changes to the law that acknowledges the parental right to lightly smack children.
MPs overwhelmingly rejected an amendment to outlaw the smacking of children, backing instead the Government’s preferred two-pronged option of “reasonable chastisement” while debarring physical punishment that caused visible bruising.
The Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman said the Government accepted the case of the so-called Lester amendment, the defence of “reasonable chastisement” by parents.
The vote – enforced by Labour Party whips – to completely ban smacking children in the Children’s Bill was defeated 424 to 75.
The sizeable backbench rebellion was the second in the space of 24 hours, after a contingent of 29 Labour MPs voted against the Gambling Bill.
The amendment last night was brought by David Hinchliffe, Labour MP for Wakefield and chair of the Health Select Committee, who made the case for granting children the same rights as adults against assault, citing the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child and the European Convention on Human Rights.
“Smacking is hitting and smacking hurts. It causes not only physical pain. It hurts inside too,” he said.
“This amendment would criminalise hitting to exactly the same extent as hitting adults is criminalised.
“It is a scandal and a disgrace that in 21st century Britain at least one child every week, over 80 every year, dies at the hands of their parents or carers.
“Like colleagues who have also worked in child protection, I don’t just think there is a connection between our shocking levels of child deaths and our laws permitting so called reasonable chastisement – I know there is.”
Margaret Hodge, Children Minister, argued an outright ban would criminalise parents for smacking disobedient children.
The separate amendment banning smacking that caused marks, bruising or “mental harm” had been left to the conscience of MPs and was passed by 284 votes to 208, halving the Government’s majority to 76.
