Labour’s Work and Pensions Secretary is set to deliver a speech this morning doubling down on her planned £5 billion of benefit cuts despite left-wing fury. Liz Kendall will deliver remarks at a Westminster think tank arguing for the need to restrict eligibility for some benefits, including her existing plans to limit who can claim Personal Independence Payments (PIP).
She will warn: “Unless we ensure public money is focused on those with the greatest need and is spent in ways that have the best chance of improving people’s lives, the welfare state simply won’t be there for people who really need it in the future. That is why we are grasping the nettle of welfare reform. Not for the sake of it, but to save it.” Ms Kendall’s remarks come despite claims that 130 Labour backbenchers are preparing to rebel against the policy.
It’s reported that the huge number of MPs have signed a private letter telling their whips they are unable to vote for the cuts.
It comes as the government’s own impact assessment for the policy showed that cuts to PIP and the health element of Universal Credit will lead to 3.2 million houses losing over £1,700 a year.
Analysis by the Disability Poverty Campaign Group has sparked terror among Labour MPs after it revealed more than 200 of them have a majority smaller than the number of Pip claimants in their constituency.
The size of the potential welfare rebellion is the first real threat to Keir Starmer’s Commons majority since his election last year, and could lead to humiliation if the Government were forced to rely on Tory abstentions in order to pass the cuts though.
According to the private letter being circulated by MPs, it warns that the proposed cuts have “caused a huge amount of anxiety and concern among disabled people and their families”.
“The planned cuts of more than £7bn represent the biggest attack on the welfare state since George Osborne ushered in the years of austerity and over 3 million of our poorest and most disadvantaged will be affected.
“Whilst the government may have correctly diagnosed the problem of a broken benefits system and a lack of job opportunities for those who are able to work, they have come up with the wrong medicine. Cuts don’t create jobs, they just cause more hardship.”
The letter calls on ministers to delay any decisions until they see the full assessments of the cuts’ impact.
Signatories of the letter are understood to included government frontbenchers, suggesting Keir Starmer may also be facing resignations over the cuts.
One of the signatories said: “This letter is something that quite explicitly says this isn’t good enough and as things stand we’re not going to vote for it from as large a group of people as possible.”
“They need to start listening. It’s as simple as that. No one’s paying any attention to the bigger picture and nobody will give us any credit if we’re mired in this kind of stuff.”
