After a group of rebel Labour MPs forced Keir Starmer into a huge benefit cuts climbdown, we want to know whether you think the PM made the right decision
Following the threat of a major Labour Party rebellion, Keir Starmer has been forced into a major climbdown over DWP welfare cuts. Hundreds of thousands of people who would’ve lost their PIP are now expected to keep receiving the payments – and we want to know if you think Starmer was right to U-turn?
Under the proposed changes to the welfare bill, those who currently claim Personal Independence Payments will not be affected by cuts. Instead, the number of people who are eligible for the benefit will be reduced after November 2024 and, crucially, the changes will affect new claims only.
The Prime Minister’s U-turn appears to have satisfied some MPs, including Dame Meg Hillier, who originally put the rebels’ torpedo amendment forward. The long-standing Labour MP described it as a “positive outcome” and said ministers had come up with a “workable compromise”. If you can’t see the poll below, click here.
Some Labour rebels have warned the PM that his benefit cuts U-turn is ‘nowhere near good enough’, setting up a showdown in the House of Commons next week. It comes after 126 Labour MPs backed an amendment that looked set to kill Starmer’s DWP reforms a matter of days ago.
MPs have warned the compromise would create a ‘two-tier’ system of disability payments, making it clear that the Labour rebellion is likely set to move forwards. However, Liz Kendall told broadcasters she is optimistic that the major concessions will make a difference.
The Work and Pensions secretary said: “I hope these changes will mean we get support for our bill, a bill that wants to ensure fairness in the welfare system for people who really need support and fairness for the taxpayer, too. But we also all agree that there do need to be changes in future to make sure that people who can work do so, we protect those who can’t, but we make the welfare state sustainable for the future.”
Nadia Whittome, who was one of 126 Labour MPs to sign the motion that threatened to completely torpedo the legislation, told the BBC: “I’m very clear that these revised proposals are nowhere near enough and actually would create a two tier benefit system.”
She explained: “We have a situation where someone with the same disability and the same level of needs doesn’t get PIP just because they became disabled at a later date or gets less money in the Universal Credit health element because they became disabled at a later date.
“If you’re somebody with a fluctuating or degenerative condition who doesn’t need PIP or the Universal Credit health element now, but knows that you’ll probably need it in the future, that’s not going to be any comfort to you.”
In response to news of the Prime Minister’s climbdown, Mirror Political Editor Lizzy Buchan said Starmer had ‘underestimated how strongly backbenchers opposed these cuts’. She wrote: “For months I’d been hearing how unhappy MPs were, concerns echoed by Labour’s trade union backers, party members and Mirror readers.
“Most Labour MPs accept the welfare bill is too high, and agree that people need help to get back into work .But the PM and his ministers failed to convince them that cutting Personal Independence Payments – an in-work benefit – was the way to achieve this.
“The Government blew a lot of political capital on its disastrous decision to cut the winter fuel allowance. And the recent U-turn gave Labour MPs hope that they could persuade the PM into another rethink.”
What do you think? Was Starmer right to U-turn on DWP benefit cuts? Take our poll and have your say in the comments below.