Keir Starmer’s Labour government could yet face a big rebellion by backbench MPs on Tuesday over disability benefit cuts, despite a U-turn to stave off what would have been certain defeat.
The prime minister’s Downing Street team believed on Monday it had conceded enough to win a crucial vote on proposed cuts to personal independence payments (Pip), top-up benefits paid to disabled people.
Many Labour rebels, however, indicated they could still oppose the plans in a House of Commons vote due late on Tuesday. They accused Downing Street of “rowing back” on concessions agreed last week.
Mr Starmer must now wait to see if he has done enough to nudge the proposed cuts over their first parliamentary hurdle. As many as 50 Labour MPs may still rebel, which would allow it to squeak through. If his Bill falls, however, grumbling over the direction of the government will grow.
RM Block
The proposed cuts to restrict eligibility for Pip, part of a package originally designed to save £5 billion (€5.8 billion) from the UK’s welfare bill, sparked easily the biggest domestic crisis of Mr Starmer’s premiership and have eroded his authority. Downing Street had argued the cost of benefits was unsustainable and suggested it was “immoral” to keep some disabled people “trapped” on them instead of in work.
Despite a working majority of more than 165 over the opposition, the plans came awry when at least 120 Labour rebels threatened to switch sides and inflict defeat on the government with a so-called “wrecking amendment” to kill off the proposals.
Even the government’s impact assessment of its original proposals estimated it would push 250,000 people into relative poverty. Rebels complained that the government ignored their concerns about this for weeks.
Many blamed Mr Starmer’s Cork-born chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, for focusing too much on harsh benefits policies to appease right-leaning Reform UK supporters. Chancellor of the exchequer Rachel Reeves, whose strict self-imposed fiscal rules have boxed in Labour on spending, also became a lightning rod for criticism.
When it became obvious last week that the rebels had the numbers to kill off the proposals, Downing Street backed down and offered £2.5 billion worth of concessions to appease the so-called “soft left” faction at the heart of the Labour backbench mutiny.
The declared group of rebel MPs included 13 committee chairs, such as Meg Hillier, chairwoman of the powerful House of Commons treasury committee; she tabled the original wrecking amendment. Other prominent rebels included Debbie Abrahams, chairwoman of the work and pensions committee, who negotiated the concessions last week. Another Labour MP, Vicky Foxcroft, quit as a government whip to join the rebellion.
All three were prominent among Labour MPs who continued to challenge the government on Monday afternoon, when work and pensions secretary Liz Kendall addressed the Commons to outline a series of concessions designed to win the vote.
“We have listened carefully [to backbenchers] and we are making positive changes,” said Ms Kendall. She confirmed the changes to Pip eligibility would not apply to existing claimants, a concession agreed last week.
She also confirmed, however, plans to press ahead with new Pip assessment criteria next year, without waiting for the results of a review due around the same time. Ms Abrahams, a key rebel negotiator, had earlier told ITV this was not what had been agreed.
Outside of the parliamentary party, other senior Labour figures such as London mayor Sadiq Khan and Manchester mayor Andy Burnham said the concessions had not gone far enough. It was only a “50 per cent U-turn”, said Mr Burnham, as he urged his MP colleagues to vote down the government’s proposals.
