LABOUR whips have been engaged in a frenetic damage-limitation exercise by trying to keep down to below 50 the number of its party rebels on the UK Government’s Welfare Reform Bill.

Acting leader Harriet Harman tabled an amendment to the legislation, which set out which of the UK Government proposals Labour backed and which it opposed.

On the assumption it was due to fail, she urged MPs to abstain on the Bill’s main Second Reading vote.

The London MP has warned that following Labour’s heavy General Election defeat that it could no longer afford to offer blanket opposition to all of the Government’s proposed austerity measures, making clear she now backed moves to reduce the household welfare cap and restrict tax credit and universal credit payments to two children.

However, almost 60 Labour MPs signed a separate amendment, tabled by backbencher Helen Goodman, which criticised the Government Bill more widely.

“Having pointed out what’s wrong with the Bill, it seems to me only logical, if her (Ms Harman’s) motion doesn’t succeed, which it is unlikely to do, that we vote against the Bill in its entirety,” said the MP for Bishop Auckland near Durham.

Originally, three out of the four Labour leadership contenders opposed Ms Harman’s position. But two appeared to have changed their minds; Andy Burnham and Yvette Cooper.

Mr Burnham stressed he would not vote against the Bill despite previously saying it was “unsupportable”.

In a letter to Labour colleagues, the MP for Leigh near Manchester said he would toe the party line and abstain in the main vote because collective responsibility was important and was what he would expect from his MPs if he were leader.

While leadership contender Liz Kendall had made clear she too would not oppose the Bill in the main vote, leftwing rival Jeremy Corbyn was adamant he would.

Earlier, George Osborne sought to up the pressure on the Opposition to support the UK Government, urging “progressive” Labour MPs not to make the same mistake of the last parliament by refusing to support every Coalition welfare reform. “I say: vote with us,” declared the Chancellor.

Meantime, the SNP as well as the Liberal Democrats, under their new leader Tim Farron, said they would vote against the Bill while Green Party MP Caroline Lucas made clear she would oppose it too.

Elsewhere, Ian Murray, the Shadow Scottish Secretary, pointed out how House of Commons Library research showed the proposed Conservative Government plan to move disabled people from Employment Support Allowance to Jobseeker’s Allowance would result in nearly 67,000 disabled people across Scotland – including cancer sufferers and people with Parkinson’s – losing up to £1560 a year in benefit.

“With one small change, the Tories now look set to make disabled people over £1500 a year worse off. People in this group have gone through a rigorous test and have been deemed not fit to work. They include people suffering from Parkinson’s or being treated for cancer. That is why this benefit was created differently from normal Jobseeker’s Allowances.”

The Edinburgh MP added that if Labour’s bid to oppose the Bill in Ms Harman’s amendment failed, as was expected, then the party would work to remove the “worst parts of it at the next stage”.