Sir Stephen Timms was confronted by Sky News host Wilfred Frost with a post by Liz Kendall opposing disability benefit cuts when Labour was in opposition
A DWP minister was confronted with his boss’s 2016 comments opposing a disability benefit shake-up – after she imposed £5billion of welfare cuts.
Sir Stephen Timms was shown a tweet by Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall urging people to oppose Tory cuts. The post has been widely circulated in the past 24 hours after she unveiled an overhaul of Personal Independent Payments (PIP) and Universal Credit.
Ms Kendall was responding to a message by left-wing Labour MP Jon Trickett, who wrote: “We will do all in our power to stop (former Tory Chancellor George) Osborne cutting disability benefits in order to hand out tax cuts for the rich.”
Sir Stephen was shown the tweet in an awkward exchange on Sky News and challenged on whether Labour has changed its tune now its in power. Host Wilfred Frost asked him: “Are you going to sit here now and suggest that this was clearly advertised to Labour voters that these cuts were coming?
“I mean, you often criticised the Government’s announcements when they even try to bring up this idea as being a sort of anti people who can’t work. It was misleading, the rhetoric in opposition, was it not?”
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Sir Stephen responded: “No.” Mr Frost then produced Ms Kendall’s tweet, telling him: “Your boss, the Secretary of State Liz Kendall, tweeted explicitly to encourage people to sign a petition when the Conservative Government in 2016 was considering cutting disability benefits.
“It doesn’t match up the rhetoric in opposition to this action, and it’s an action you’ve just acknowledged is not because of fiscal constraints. You’re going to do it anyway.”
Sir Stephen responded: “The changes were making all the right changes. The previous government made lots of changes, which did a great deal of damage. For example, one of the things that they did was remove an element of universal Credit, and it’s now pretty widely accepted that that forced people under the higher level of Universal Credit.
“So it’s actually cost money. And once people are claiming that higher health premium, then they no longer supported into work. Now that’s a very damaging change.
“We opposed the damaging changes the previous government made. We’re bringing forward a package which we think will do the job that’s needed to support people back into work and make the system sustainable financially.”
Kendall confirmed an overhaul of PIP and Universal Credit as she warned the social security system is “failing the very people it is supposed to help and holding our country back”. But she faced an immediate backlash over the plans, which were branded “cruel cuts” by disability charities. Work and Pensions Committee chair Debbie Abrahams said: “There are alternative, more compassionate ways to balance the books, rather than on the back of disabled people.”
In a Commons statement setting out the plans, Ms Kendall said millions of people were trapped on benefits and denied the dignity that good work can bring. Flanked by Keir Starmer and Angela Rayner, she promised to create “a more proactive, pro-work system for those who can work, and to be protected for those who cannot work now and for the long term”. She said the system will be there “for people in genuine need… that is a principle we will never compromise on”.
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