MPs and the parliamentary process rarely get a good press. Most citizens do not trust either of them much. As a result, the decline of parliament’s role in national life has been a familiar topic for decades. Yet, when push comes to shove, as it has done again this week with Labour’s important backbench revolt against the government’s welfare plans, it turns out that MPs actually matter quite a lot.

By Thursday morning, more than 120 Labour MPs had signalled opposition to the government’s universal credit and personal independence payment bill. With the bill due to be voted on next Tuesday in the House of Commons, and with Labour’s working majority currently standing at 165, that level of rebellion was irresistible. If the bill as it stands had come to a vote, Labour would have lost. This would have been a fundamental humiliation for Sir Keir Starmer, almost a year to the day after Labour was elected.

Speaking to journalists two days earlier, Sir Keir had stuck to his guns. There was a “clear moral case” for the bill’s reforms, he insisted. A day later, he dismissed the revolt as “

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