After a tricky few weeks for the government, in which backbenchers overturned plans to cut back welfare spending, now a heavy hand to get the party into line.

Three newly-elected MPs, Neil Duncan-Jordan, MP for Poole, Brian Leishman, MP for the new Alloa and Grangemouth constituency, and Chris Hinchcliff, for North East Herefordshire, have all had the whip suspended.

Rachael Maskell, MP for York Central, who was first elected a decade ago, is the fourth.

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They will all sit as independent MPs and will not be allowed to stand for Labour at the next election, unless readmitted. All appear to be surprised – and upset.

Three more have lost plum roles as trade enjoys – Dr Rosena Allin-Khan, Bell Ribeiro-Addy and Mohammed Yasin, all on the left of the party.

All were active in the rebellion against the government’s welfare reforms, and voted against the changes even after a series of U-turns – but were among 47 Labour MPs who did so.

When MPs were told after the welfare vote that Number 10 was “fully committed to engaging with parliamentarians”, this was not what they were expecting.

We’re told the reasons for these particular suspensions go wider – over “persistent breaches of party discipline” – although most are not high profile.

In the scheme of things, Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell rebelled against the Labour whip hundreds of times under New Labour, without being suspended.

But these MPs’ pointed criticism of the Starmer strategy has clearly hit a nerve.

Maskell – who was referred to, jokingly, in the House of Commons earlier this month by Tory MP Danny Kruger as “the real prime minister” – led the rebellion against cuts to winter fuel allowance which triggered a U-turn which she said would still leave pensioners in fuel poverty.

There was an attack on the government’s values. Duncan-Jordan, a trade unionist who won the Poole seat by just 18 votes, led the welfare rebellion, telling Sky News the proposed cutbacks were “not a very Labour thing to do”.

Hinchliff, who has also opposed the government’s housebuilding strategy and plans to expand Luton airport,had told his local paper he was willing to lose the whip over welfare cuts if necessary. He also has a marginal seat, won by fewer than 2,000 votes.

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Who are the suspended Labour MPs?

Leishman, a former pro golfer, has also been vocal about government plans to close the refinery in his Grangemouth constituency after promising to try and make it viable. They are MPs who the leadership fear are going for broke – and that’s concerning as more tough decisions on spending are likely to come.

But after a poorly-handled welfare vote, in which MPs seemed to be in the driving seat forcing changes, will this instil a sense of discipline over the summer break?

While some MPs will see this as a deterrent to rebellion, for those whose chances of re-election are small, it may continue to be seen as a price worth paying.

To other Labour MPs, the move is confusing and may be counter-productive. One Labour MP on the left told me: “So, we’re suspending people for winning an argument with the government?”

Another, in the centre, feared it looked divisive, saying: “We need to go into the summer focused on the opposition – not involved in our melodramas.”

Number 10 wants to show rebelling comes at a price – but many Labour MPs with concerns about their political direction will want to know the prime minister is planning to listen to concerns before it gets to that point.

An Afghan interpreter who worked with the British military has told Sky News he feels “betrayed by the British government” after a massive data breach saw his personal details revealed.

Ali, whose name has been changed to protect his identity, had long suspected his details had been shared with the Taliban – but found out just yesterday that he was a victim of the breach three years ago.

He is now even more fearful for the lives of family members still in Afghanistan, who are already in hiding from the Taliban.

Ali worked alongside British soldiers in Helmand Province to help them speak with Afghan people. His job also involved listening in on Taliban radio communications and translating them for the British forces.

“The Taliban called us the British eyes,” he told Sky News. “Because they think if we are not on the ground with them, the British force cannot do anything.

“They know that you’re listening to their chatting and the British forces are acting according to our translation. We were always the first target and our job was always full of risk.”

After the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan in 2021, Ali – who had already suffered injuries after the Taliban targeted him with a car bomb – was brought to the UK through the British government’s Afghan Resettlement Programme (ARP) for his own protection.

Once in the UK, he began to suspect his data had been leaked after his father “died because the Taliban took him into custody and beat him”.

Ali contacted the Ministry of Defence to raise concerns over his personal information last year, and stated in an email that he was “terrified”, adding: “I beg of you, do not pass this information to anyone.”

“They just ignored what I told them and they never replied,” he said.

‘The Taliban want me’

Following confirmation that the data breach did take place, Ali is even more scared for the lives of his family members who have already been in hiding from the Taliban for around five months.

“I’m feeling terrible and frustrated,” he said. “My family’s details have been shared with the Taliban intelligence forces and now they are looking for them.

“Every day, every single minute, my family’s waiting for their death, because if anyone comes to knock the door, they think that that is the Taliban.”

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Ali has twice applied for his family to be relocated to the UK but both applications have been rejected. He is now renewing his call for the British government to move his loved ones.

“I have carried the body of the British soldier,” he said. “I feel betrayed by the British government. They should relocate my family to a safe place.”

Read more:
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Ali has decided he will return to his homeland to help his family if they are not granted legal passage to the UK.

“If we don’t win [the case], I have decided I want to go back to Afghanistan and finish this,” he said. “The Taliban want me. If the British government can’t save my family, then I have this one responsibility to go and save them.

“I don’t want my family being killed for something they didn’t do.”

Sky News has contacted the Ministry of Defence for comment.

The parents of a woman who died after her blood clot was misdiagnosed by someone who she thought was a doctor have called a government-ordered review “a missed opportunity”.

Marion and Brendan Chesterton have welcomed many of the recommendations in Professor Gillian Leng’s review of the role that physician associates (PAs) perform in the NHS, but say “they don’t go far enough”.

Emily, 30, died in November 2022 after suffering a pulmonary embolism. She went to see her GP at a north London surgery twice in the weeks before her death – and on both occasions was seen by a physician associate who missed the blood clot and instead prescribed propranolol for anxiety.

The actress from Salford had told her worried parents that she had been seen by a doctor, but she had not.

Her father Brendan told Sky News: “If she come out and said I’ve seen someone called the physician’s associate I’m sure we would have insisted that, you know, let’s go back and insist that you see a doctor. She never knew.”

Now, a government-ordered review led by Prof Leng, president of the Royal Society of Medicine, has recommended NHS physician associates should be banned from diagnosing patients who have not already had contact with a doctor for their illness.

The report suggests a major change to the role of PAs after it acknowledged they have been used as substitutes for doctors, despite having significantly less training.

More than 3,500 PAs and 100 anaesthesia associates (AAs) are working in the NHS and there have been previous calls for an expansion in their number.

But a general lack of support for the roles from the medical profession – plus high-profile deaths of patients who were misdiagnosed by PAs – led Health Secretary Wes Streeting to order a review.

Presenting her findings, Prof Leng said: “Crucially I’m recommending that PAs should not see undifferentiated or untriaged patients.

“If (patients) are triaged, they (PAs) should be able to see adult patients with minor ailments in line with relevant guidance from the Royal College of GPs.”

She said more detail was needed on which patients can be seen by PAs and national clinical protocols should be developed in this area.

She added: “Let’s be clear, (the role of PAs) is working well in some places, but there indeed has been some substitution and any substitution is clearly risky and confusing for patients.”

Prof Leng also recommended PAs should be renamed “physician assistants” to position them “as a supportive, complementary member of the medical team” – and have standardised uniforms to distinguish them from doctors – while AAs should be renamed “physician assistants in anaesthesia”.

Newly qualified PAs should also work in hospitals for two years before they are allowed to work in GP surgeries or mental health trusts.

The report said that while research suggests patients are satisfied after seeing a PA, some did not know they were not seeing a doctor.

Prof Leng concluded there were “no convincing reasons to abolish the roles of AA or PA”, but there is also no case “for continuing with the roles unchanged”.

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She recommended that both PAs and AAs should have the opportunity for ongoing training and development, with potential to prescribe medicines in the future, and they should also have the opportunity to become an “advanced” PA or AA.

Six patient deaths linked to contact with PAs have been recorded by coroners in England.

Emily’s mother Marion said some of the review’s findings were significant and her daughter would still be alive if the recommendations had been in place when she fell ill.

She said: “I think so, yes, which is so important, which is why we’re so pleased that this review has been made.”

But Mrs Chesterton added that more could have done, including stopping all PAs from prescribing drugs.

“We feel it’s a missed opportunity. It could have gone all the way there and cleared things up totally. Our daughter died. She was prescribed a drug that she should not have been prescribed. And it had absolutely catastrophic circumstances. She died for goodness sake.”

The Chestertons’ concerns are shared by the British Medical Association (BMA).

Dr Emma Runswick, BMA’s deputy chair, said: “It is definitely a problem that the roles of doctors and now physician assistants has been blurred and it’s positive that their name is going to change, that there will be a uniform.

“But whilst they continue to be deployed in a way that mimics doctors at the behest of any local employer decision, we have to have ongoing concerns about their safety.”

But UMAPs, the trade union which represents both PAs and AAs, has warned the changes will undermine their qualifications and their role, lengthen waiting lists and worsen the impact of any strike action.

“By trying to placate them, at a time when they’re striking – and they want their strikes to bite the hardest by taking us out of the workforce – we’re now putting patients at risk,” said Steve Nash, general secretary of UMAPs.

“I think the biggest patient safety risk, out there right now, is the BMA,” he added.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting, who ordered this review, said: “We’re accepting all of the recommendations of the Leng review, which will provide clarity for the public and make sure we’ve got the right staff, in the right place, doing the right thing. Patients can be confident that those who treat them are qualified to do so.

“Physician Assistants, as they will now be known, will continue to play an important role in the NHS. They should assist doctors, but they should never be used to replace doctors.

“Our Plan for Change will build on its findings and we will work to implement these findings in the interests of staff and patients alike.”