LBC host Nick Ferrari has derided Labour’s dramatic £5billion benefits crackdown as “too little, too late” in a tense confrontation with a minister. The presenter was grilling Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) minister Sir Stephen Timms on his breakfast show a day after the plan that sparked a Labour civil war.
Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall announced a raft of money-saving changes, which included scrapping work capability assessments, freezing the health element rates of Universal Credit, and ramping up health work assessments to force those claiming benefits to prove they cannot work. The measures are expected to save more than £5billion a year in 2029-30, but have infuriated some Labour MPs, unions and charities – with Unite general secretary Sharon Graham warning that they are “pitting the poorest against the poorest”. Pointing to the divisions on the Left, Ferrari said to Sir Stephen: “Some of your Labour colleagues have voiced major concerns.
“Some are saying it’s not in keeping with Labour principles.”
Despite a host of Labour MPs, including former frontbenchers Diane Abbott and Clive Lewis, criticising the plans in the House of Commons, Sir Stephen said he was “pleased with the general response” and said: “I think most people recognise we do need to reform the system.”
Highlighting the soaring cost of the Personal Independence Payment, he added: “If that simply carried on, then it would risk scuppering the whole system when we need that system to be sustainable in the long term for those who depend on it. So it’s right to make these changes for that reason.”
Ferrari interjected: “But Sir Stephen, by the time your colleagues’ changes all come into place in a couple of years, it’s forecast that the benefit bill would have reached £98billion – and the cuts that we heard are seeking to trim it by about £5-6billion.
“It’s too little, too late isn’t it?”
Sir Stephen insisted it was not, saying that many on disability payments would love to be in employment.
“We’re going to be providing that support and investing £1billion a year by the end of this Parliament,” he said.