All Prime Ministers have to fight back-bench rebellions and they usually win, at least in the short term. Those who are encouraging Keir Starmer and his high command to press ahead with the Universal Credits and Personal Payments Bill are doubtless invoking that history.

Eventually, the demands of loyalty and perhaps even a modicum of self-interest are enough to tilt the balance of conscience. Maybe it will – or would – happen this time with this bill which is due to be voted on next week, but I hope by then that Labour MPs will have been spared the dilemma.

There are times when leaders should listen in order to accept strategic advice and change course. This is one of them. The problem is not just with the content of the bill but the context in which it has been set. The early, macho mis-steps of the Government created an environment in which trust was stretched to the limits of tolerance.

These first six months delivered two hard sells for Labour MPs – taking Winter Fuel Payments away from most pensioners and reforming benefits for people with disabilities, with much emphasis on the money to be saved. Once set, these impressions were difficult to escape from.

They were not the defining priorities expected of an incoming Labour government and no matter the pleas of justification – some of them perfectly legitimate if taken in political isolation – they self- inflicted damage which is slowly being recovered from. Equally ill-advisedly, they obscured many positive and progressive changes that the same government has been........

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