Sir Keir Starmer delivers a speech on clean energy during a visit to Hutchinson (Image: PA)

       Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer may “come to regret” his decision to punish rebel MPs over their Commons rebellion earlier this week, former Tory cabinet minister Ann Widdecombe has predicted.

       The ex-MP for Maidstone, now a leading figure in Nigel Farage’s Reform UK, spoke out after Sir Keir suspended the whip from seven MPs who backed an SNP amendment which would have scrapped the two-child benefit cap.

       The move prompted one of them, Coventry South MP Zara Sultana, to suggest she was the victim of this “macho virility test”.

       And she won an unlikely ally in Ms Widdecombe, who told Express.co.uk: “I think Starmer’s reaction is a complete over-reaction.

       “The rule in Parliament has always been if you're on the front bench, you vote with the government or you're out. That's always been the rule.

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       Ann Widdecombe believes Sir Keir has over-reacted (Image: Getty)

       “But backbenchers have always had a certain amount of freedom.

       “You can't vote against no-confidence motions obviously but apart from that, we've always had, as parliamentarians, a degree of freedom to exercise conscience.

       “If think back to the Thatcher years and the big rebellions that we had on the NHS reforms, the education reforms, and it was taken, just accepted.

       “Keir has come down on seven backbenchers - none of them are frontbenchers- who voted with their conscience on an issue that they have always made clear where they stand.

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       Labour MP Zara Sultana is one of seven to have the Labour whip suspended (Image: Getty)

       “It’s not as if it's something new and I think he may come to regret doing that.”

       The PM was currently “getting away with it” because the public was “fed-up” with the Parliamentary indiscipline which characterised the last few years of Tory rule, Express columnist Ms Widdecombe suggested.

       However, she warned: “If he does that every single time there's a rebellion, and he's got several policies that left-wingers don't like, if every single time there's a rebellion he suspends anybody who voted against the government, he's going to have a big problem.

       “And of course, if he doesn’t, then he's going to be asked ‘why have you picked on these MPs?’

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       Sir Keir Starmer pictured yesterday (Image: Getty)

       “I think he absolutely mad to have done it.”

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       Challenged on the issue during yesterday’s Prime Minister’s Question Time, Sir Keir did not address the matter directly but said: "The last Labour government lifted millions of children out of poverty, something we are very, very proud of.

       "And this Government will approach the question with the same vigour with our new task force.

       "Already we've taken steps: breakfast clubs; abolishing no-fault evictions; decent homes standard; Awaab's Law; and a plan to make work pay."

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