First year report cards on your city MPs

What the Capital's representatives at Westminster have been up to since the General Election

Tracy Gilbert, MP for Edinburgh North and Leith

A year ago Labour swept across Edinburgh in the General Election, as they did in much of the rest of the country, replacing the SNP as the dominant force from the city at Westminster.

When the dust settled the city had four Labour MPs and one Liberal Democrat. Only Ian Murray (Labour - Edinburgh South) and Christine Jardine (Lib Dem - Edinburgh West) held on to their seats, with three Labour candidates (Tracy Gilbert, Chris Murray and Scott Arthur) taking the rest of the city, and their first ever seats in Westminster.

Nobody would say it’s been a smooth ride for the Labour government’s first year. A smorgasbord of budget cuts, tax rises and the increasing prospect of more to come, some very controversial (and eventually largely abandoned) welfare reforms and unprecedented sanctions against pro-Palestine campaigners have left most voters deflated. The latter two in particular have alienated much of Labour’s own support base, overshadowing progress they might otherwise have cheered elswhere including raising the minimum wage, nationalising railways, setting up a government-owned renewable energy investment body, and reforming the House of Lords.

But how do our own MPs fit into this political picture? What have they been up to?

Whipped: Labour’s (mainly) obedient new MPs

According to data analysis by the pro-democracy site TheyWorkForYou, the three new Labour MPs in Edinburgh and the Lothians voted between 96 and 98% in line with other Labour MPs across 271 votes. While party whips (instructions to MPs on how to vote, from their party leadership) are usually not made public, this is a pretty clear indication that the new recruits have voted largely along party lines for their first year. That isn’t unusual for backbench government MPs and isn’t simply boot-licking to get important positions in government (although it might be). It is always hard to tell how much lobbying party loyalists might be doing behind the scenes – and as we have seen in recent days defying the whip can lead to MPs being temporarily expelled from their party, and therefore letting go of any decent chance of influencing policy.

Some key decisions Edinburgh’s Labour MPs have unanimously waved through are:

• - Tax rises: increased employer contributions for National Insurance, stamp duty, and capital gains tax

• - Charging VAT on private schools

• - Extending access to free school meals in England

• - Removing universal winter fuel payments for pensioners

• - Proscribing Palestine Action as a terrorist group

• - Creating a government-owned energy company, Great British Energy, and basing it in Scotland

• - Nationalising British railways (this has already happened in Scotland)

However, two Edinburgh MPs played a part in the largest Labour rebellion of the current government, over changes to Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment, which risked leaving many disabled people worse off.

Tracy Gilbert: Edinburgh North and Leith

Tracy Gilbert was one of nearly 50 Labour MPs who voted against the highly controversial Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment (PIP) Bill. The Bill would have cut universal credit payments and decreased the number of people eligible for PIP (disability allowance). So many Labour MPs threatened to vote the bill down that the government was forced to U-turn on most Universal Credit cuts and on any changes to PIP eligibility. Four MPs have been suspended over the rebellion, and three others have lost their trade envoy positions. Gilbert has avoided being suspended, and declined to comment on the Welfare Bill this week.