TONY Blair will tonight bulldoze away his first major back-bench rebellion as at least 20 of his party's MPs prepare to vote against the government's plans to cut benefits for single parents.

After all, with his huge majority hardly dented and with the Tories voting with the government for what were originally their proposals, the outcome is not in doubt.

But what this row clearly signifies is a clash between Old and New Labour - and that the unreformed have yet to acquire the sense of responsibility that goes with government and learn the essence of this proposal.

They are, of course, reading it as a crude Tory-type attack on the poor. And it is to be expected that socialist instincts would rebel against that.

Yet, if they would look at the larger picture, it is about much more.

Firstly, it is part of a programme designed to make lone parents better off. For it is coupled with government action - such as the provision of extra nursery places and after-school activities - aimed at enabling more single parents to go to work and obtain incomes that are in excess of benefits.

And if it helps to snap the link between benefits and dependency, it is not just the taxpayers who gain, but those who were former claimants, their children and society generally.

Additionally, the reduction of the benefit to the same level as that received by couples is not just a strict equalising step, but action that also emphasises the value of society's most vital glue - the traditional family - by not giving preferential treatment to the alternative.

It has, of course, to be stressed that without these elements - and without government policies and projects to support them - the cut in single parents' benefits would appear harsh and would deservedly attract the kind of attack the Labour rebels are mounting tonight.

Yet, rather than how many Labour MPs vote against it or abstain tonight, the number who vote for it - because of their ability to observe the whole package in which it comes - will be the measure of New Labour's maturity and sense of responsibility.

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