Labour MP thinks tribalism is more important than principle

The government squeaked through today in the third Heathrow expansion vote. It was touch and go and according to Jon Craig from Sky News, it was down to Brown effectively begging the rebellious MPs to back down and also by relying on support from DUP MPs.

What I found interesting is the attitude of Labour MP Alan Keen who despite opposing the expansion said he would vote against the Tory amendment motion to rethink the plans because it was "party political".

That seems incredibly cynical to me. So he agrees with the amendment but votes against it because he wants to stick with his tribe. I hope the voters in the Feltham and Heston constituency (which is actually very near Heathrow) remember this at the next election. It appears that whilst they might have thought they were electing a representative, they were just electing lobby fodder for whatever Brown decides he wants to do.

As I blogged about recently, the vast majority of respondents to a survey who expressed a preference did not want the expansion to go ahead. I suspect more than a few of them live in Mr Keen's constituency.

Although his majority is 7000 or so, with a collapse in the Labour vote at the next election, this may not be as safe as it seems. He may come to regret his actions and comments in 18 months time.

Edit: More Blog reaction here.