Sir Keir Starmer is facing a looming rebellion over his welfare reform package by Labour MPs who have warned it is “impossible to support” in its current form.
Dozens have thrown their support behind a letter urging the government to “delay” the proposals, which they blasted as “the biggest attack on the welfare state” since Tory austerity.
The MPs – who are restless after Labour’s poor showing at last week’s local elections – warned the prime minister that his plans to slash the welfare bill by £5bn a year were “impossible to support” without a “change in direction”.
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In the letter, seen by Sky News, the MPs said the reforms – which will tighten eligibility criteria for incapacity benefits – had caused a “huge amount of anxiety 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 three million of our poorest and most disadvantaged will be affected,” they wrote.
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“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 MPs called for a delay to the reforms until all impact assessments on employment, health and social care had been published, thereby allowing them to “vote knowing all the facts”.
Call for change in direction
A government impact assessment in March found an additional 250,000 people – including 50,000 children – could be pushed into relative poverty in the financial year ending 2030.
The MPs went on to say that while the benefits system needed reform, this needed to be done “with a genuine dialogue with disabled people’s organisations”.
“We also need to invest in creating job opportunities and ensure the law is robust enough to provide employment protections against discrimination,” they added.
“Without a change in direction, the green paper will be impossible to support.”
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The letter comes after Sir Keir and his allies sought to quell the discontent that has emerged in the aftermath of the local elections, which saw Labour lose the Runcorn by-election and control of Doncaster Council to Reform.
The losses at the hands of Nigel Farage’s party have sparked an internal debate as to which direction the Labour Party should now take.
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While some MPs in Labour’s traditional northern heartlands want the party to focus more on cutting immigration, others representing London and metropolitan areas have warned that such an approach risks driving progressive voters to the Green Party and other left-wing rivals.
‘The fight of our lives’
On Wednesday night, the prime minister sent Pat McFadden, his chief cabinet “fixer”, to address MPs in a bid to calm the disquiet in the party.
However, Mr McFadden warned the meeting of around 100 Labour MPs that they were now facing “the fight of our lives” against Mr Farage and his politics.
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The meeting was called after Labour MPs began demanding a U-turn over the cut to the winter fuel allowance, which they blamed for the party’s poor performance last week.
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At Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday, Sir Keir defended taking away the allowance for most pensioners, arguing that it had helped to “put our finances back in order after the last government lost control”.
Downing Street also ruled out a U-turn on means testing the winter fuel payment, following newspaper reports earlier this week that one might be on the cards.
The prime minister’s official spokesperson said: “The policy is set out, there will not be a change to the government’s policy.”
They added that the decision was necessary “to ensure economic stability and repair the public finances following the £22bn black hole left by the previous government”.
