Another Wednesday, another crisis vote for Labour

A group of 11 Labour rebels have tabled a new clause for the Finance Bill debate on Wednesday, demanding full compensation for 1.1m households of low-paid workers who lost out with the abolition of the 10p tax rate.

The new clause was tabled by David Taylor, former ministers Frank Field and Peter Kilfoyle, Gordon Prentice, Jim Divine, and Katy Clarke. It calls for full compensation with the up-rating of personal allowances for all those on less than £13,600 who were not fully compensated in Chancellor Alistair Darling's package of help that cost £2.7bn and went to 22m taxpayers.

Meanwhile, Darling still has work to do before he can buy off Labour backbenchers rebelling over what they see as another injustice - the back-dating of the Vehicle Excise Duty (VED), a cock-up broken by The Mole back in mid-May.

The Daily Telegraph has angered Broon's camp by saying that Darling is ready to wave the white flag and cave in to their demands. No such luck. The rebels are still threatening to support a Tory amendment on Wednesday.

The VED decision strikes even Brown's friends as another own goal, with the PM typically in denial. The proposal was originally presented as an attempt to hit gas guzzlers with a graduated 'showroom' tax. But then Darling quietly changed the policy by backdating it to 2001, removing an exemption for cars registered between 2001 and 2006. At a stroke he put owners of older cars at a disadvantage and wrecked the second-hand car market for good measure.

Ian Gibson was among the left-wing Labour MPs who said it was another example of the government hitting Labour's natural supporters, ie those with older cars. The point was made to Brown that it should not be retrospective, but he denied it was, because it only comes into effect next year. "He clearly doesn't get it," said one of the Labour rebels.

They were trying to save Brown from another disaster and were hoping that Darling had at last got the message. Either Brown has intervened to stop Darling making another concession, or both men think they can get away with it. But the rebels are angry that they have not got what they wanted.

So, another Wednesday, another crisis vote. The left are asking now: "Will Gordon ever learn?" They don't think so.

THE MOLE: FINANCE BILL

FIRST POSTED JULY 1, 2008