Liverpool Riverside.

One of Labour's more persistent rebels on welfare, Kim Johnson voted against the Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill at both committee and third reading stages in July 2025, and has since defied the whip on protest crackdown regulations, jury trial reforms, and Lords amendments to the Crime and Policing Bill. Her voting record puts her roughly 88 percentage points above her party average on disability benefits protection -- one of the sharpest deviations in her parliamentary profile. Outside the chamber, she has publicly called government concessions on disability cuts "nowhere near far enough" and signed a reasoned amendment backed by over 120 Labour MPs opposing the legislation.

Johnson votes with Labour around 97% of the time on most issues, but her deviations cluster around a consistent theme: protecting welfare, civil liberties, and workers' rights. She participates in 71% of votes -- close to the Commons average -- and has spoken across 134 debates, with crime, defence, economy and jobs, and social care dominating her contributions. She scores near zero on parliamentary scrutiny alignment and pro-business stances, and shows no recorded support for Lords scrutiny, suggesting she backs executive action when it aligns with her priorities but resists it when it does not. She backed tightened asylum support rules in April 2026, a rare departure from her generally left-leaning posture.

Her local focus is evident: she raised the cause of the Cammell Laird 37 in Parliament and pressed for removal of the two-child benefit cap, citing that nearly half of children in Liverpool Riverside are affected. She draws on personal experience in housing debates, writing publicly about racism in the housing system. Johnson holds no committee seats, meaning her scrutiny work happens on the floor rather than in committee. No significant negative coverage appears in recent news data.