A Labour MP warned Sir Keir Starmer will face the “mother of all rebellions” unless he backtracks on slashing benefits. Left-winger Richard Burgon made the comment on social media following a question on the topic at Prime Minister’s Questions.
It comes after the Government yesterday unveiled £5 billion of welfare cuts as a Labour civil war rages over the issue. Mr Burgon said on X: “The Prime Minister was unable to answer a simple question today about why a disabled person who needs help to eat, wash and manage toilet needs could no longer get personal independence payments under his proposals. The Government must drop this cruel proposal or it’ll face the mother of all rebellions.”
Sir Keir had insisted that the current benefits system is “morally and economically indefensible” in response to a question from SDLP MP Colum Eastwood at PMQs.
Mr Eastwood said: “A lady came to see me recently who needed help, she had a disability. It meant that her children have to cut up her food, they have to help her wash between the waist, they have to supervise her when she goes to the toilet.
“Under the Tory welfare system we were able to get that lady on PIP. Under the Prime Minister’s new proposed system she will get zero, nothing.
“And after 14 years of the Tory government and many of us wanted to see the back of them, can the Prime Minister answer one question – what was the point if Labour are going to do this?”
Sir Keir replied: “I have lived with the impact of a disability in our family through my mother and brother all my life. I do understand the human impact of this. But the current impact is morally and economically indefensible and we’re right to reform it and nobody should be defending the broken status quo.
“We are proceeding on three principles that if you can work you should work, if you need helping to work the state should help you not hinder you, and if you can never work you must be supported not protected. They are the right principles but we can’t leave the current system as it is.”
A tightening of eligibility for personal independence payments (Pip), a benefit aimed at helping those with disability or long-term illness with increased living costs, was among measures unveiled yesterday.
