Hundreds of thousands of people will avoid losing their Personal Independence Payments after Keir Starmer was forced into major climbdown to avoid a humiliating Commons defeat
Hundreds of thousands of people are expected to avoid losing their Personal Independence Payments after a major climbdown from No10 on their welfare cuts.
Keir Starmer has offered significant concessions to rebel MPs to swerve a humiliating Commons defeat next week. Leading rebels told The Mirror “serious progress” had been made in crisis talks with No10 over cuts impacting hundreds of thousands of disabled people.
Around 370,000 current claimants were expected to be impacted by PIP changes, with an average loss of £4,500 per year. But it emerged this evening that the changes to PIP and the health element of Universal Credit are now expected to apply only to new claimants. It means those currently claiming will avoid losing thousands of pounds in benefits.
One rebel told The Mirror those with severe conditions will be protected with real-terms inflation increase.
There is also expected to be a promise offered to rebels to undertake further consultations on the most controversial measures of the welfare reforms.
It comes after the number of people signing an amendment to block the plans, which includes tightening the eligibility of a key disability benefit, rose once again to 126. It is more than enough to wipe out Mr Starmer’s Commons majority
One leading rebel said the concessions would be enough to get the vote “over the line”. But the Labour MP Nadia Whittome responded to climbdown, saying: “These concessions aren’t enough and they should worry us all.
“If you become disabled tomorrow, you risk not having the support you need. We would be condemning future generations of disabled people to greater poverty. I will be voting against the Bill.”
The SNP’s Westminster leader Stephen Flynn added: “A two-tier disability system. Where the young will be treated worse than the old. Awful.”
Writing in The Mirror, the Labour MP Imran Hussain urged No10 to listen to rebels. He warned: “If they do not, we risk walking straight into a political disaster — one that could become Labour’s poll tax moment.”
One rebel – usually loyal to No10 – also told The Mirror that some MPs who have not signed the amendment are planning to either abstain or vote against the welfare bill next week.
They said: “Even more I’ve spoken to haven’t signed it [the amendment] who would be very tempted to, or have said to me ‘I’m not going to sign this amendment but I’m certainly not voting for it [the welfare bill]”. There’s a huge amount of people who are unhappy about it. They do want change and they are expressing that view to ministers.”
They added: “There’s a lot of anger all around. There’s a lot of people who feel they are being blamed now, being called disloyal.”
Earlier Mr Starmer hinted he was looking at concessions in a Commons statement. He told MPs there was “consensus across the House on the urgent need for reform” of the “broken” welfare system.
Mr Starmer said: “All colleagues want to get this right, and so do I. We want to see reform implemented with Labour values of fairness. That conversation will continue in the coming days, so we can begin to make change together on Tuesday.”
Chancellor Rachel Reeves also told ITV News: “We will continue to listen, but we want to make sure that we get this right. But we also want to make sure that we get on with the reform that is needed because at the moment, too many people are let down and we’re not happy to let that Tory welfare state persist for any longer than it has to.”
But Labour rebel Rachel Maskell warned: “It is clear that the UC [Universal Credit] & [Personal Independence Payment] Bill cannot and must not be saved. Any concessions will still cause harm to disabled people. The only option is to withdraw the Bill, rethink and start to rebuild trust with disabled people.”
Another Labour rebel, Brian Leishman, said: “There are no ‘concessions’ that can save this wretched Bill. It should be withdrawn.” MP Neil Duncan-Jordan added: “The Government needs to withdraw the Disability Benefit Cuts Bill and redesign the benefits system with disabled people’s organisations. No last minute deal to find concessions can deliver the improvements disabled people need. Back to the drawing board!”