… on a quiet day, I can hear her breathing

Category: Austerity 2

  • ‘There is nothing moral about cutting benefits’

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    Keir Starmer explainst the moral case for cutting disability benefits. He says work will set you free.
    Keir Starmer explains the moral case for cutting disability benefits. He says work will set you free.

    https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/there-is-nothing-moral-about-cutting-benefits

    Starmer under pressure over cruel plan to slash welfare budget

    … KEIR STARMER came under pressure from MPs across the Commons over his cruel plan to cut benefits today.

    Labour announced on Tuesday that it will slash £5 billion from the welfare budget by the end of the decade.

    In the Commons, Labour’s Diane Abbott told Sir Keir to stop pretending his cuts were moral.

    “There is nothing moral about cutting benefits for what may be up to a million people,” she said.

    “This is not about morality, this is about the Treasury’s wish to balance the country’s books on the back of the most vulnerable and poor people in this society.”

    Colum Eastwood from the SDLP told the prime minister of a constituent “who needed help, she had a disability. It meant that her children have to cut up her food, they have to help her wash between the waist, they have to supervise her when she goes to the toilet.

    “Under the Tory welfare system we were able to get that lady on PIP. Under the Prime Minister’s new proposed system she will get zero, nothing.

    “And after 14 years of the Tory government — and many of us wanted to see the back of them — can the Prime Minister answer one question – what was the point if Labour are going to do this?”

    Green co-leader Carla Denyer urged a wealth tax instead of cuts, a policy quietly supported by many Labour MPs.

    “We have a deeply unfair, unequal economic system where vast numbers of people are struggling yet billionaires are getting richer and richer,” she told Sir Keir.

    “Does the Prime Minister really think that the way to tackle this is to put the onus onto older people, children and now sick and disabled people rather than on the shoulders of the super-rich with a wealth tax, those people who could most easily afford to pay?”

    …

    Article continues at https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/there-is-nothing-moral-about-cutting-benefits

    Keir Starmer confirms that he's proud to be a red Tory continuing austerity and targeting poor and disabled scum.
    Keir Starmer confirms that he’s proud to be a red Tory continuing austerity and targeting poor and disabled scum.
    Keir Starmer says pensioners can freeze to death and poor children can starve and be condemned to failure and misery all their lives.
    Keir Starmer says pensioners can freeze to death and poor children can starve and be condemned to failure and misery all their lives.

  • How can you vote Labour after this?

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    Cruelty is the Point

    Keir Starmer confirms that he's proud to be a red Tory continuing austerity and targeting poor and disabled scum.
    Keir Starmer confirms that he’s proud to be a red Tory continuing austerity and targeting poor and disabled scum.
    Keir Starmer says pensioners can freeze to death and poor children can starve and be condemned to failure and misery all their lives.
    Keir Starmer says pensioners can freeze to death and poor children can starve and be condemned to failure and misery all their lives.

  • Keir Starmer to unveil drastic disability benefit cuts despite opposition

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    https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/mar/17/keir-starmer-to-unveil-drastic-disability-benefit-cuts-despite-opposition

    The prime minister’s official spokesperson said there was a clear case ‘for fixing our broken social security system that’s holding our people back, and our country back’. Photograph: Jordan Pettitt/Reuters

    Changes could deny benefits to people who need help to wash or to remember to go to the toilet

    Keir Starmer will unveil drastic cuts to disability benefits on Tuesday, despite deep opposition from Labour MPs and poverty campaigners, and warnings from economists against making kneejerk savings to hit fiscal targets.

    In the government’s most controversial move yet, it will announce a package of changes expected to affect some of the UK’s most severely disabled people.

    The measures could deny benefits for people who need some help washing themselves, preparing food or remembering to go to the toilet, as ministers attempt to overhaul the welfare system and balance the books.

    However, Downing Street has denied the plans to cut between £5bn and £6bn from the welfare bill were purely the result of the UK’s difficult fiscal situation, arguing there is a “moral and economic case” for reforming benefits.

    …

    Article continues at https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/mar/17/keir-starmer-to-unveil-drastic-disability-benefit-cuts-despite-opposition

    Keir Starmer confirms that he's proud to be a red Tory continuing austerity and targeting poor and disabled scum.
    Keir Starmer confirms that he’s proud to be a red Tory continuing austerity and targeting poor and disabled scum.
    Keir Starmer says pensioners can freeze to death and poor children can starve and be condemned to failure and misery all their lives.
    Keir Starmer says pensioners can freeze to death and poor children can starve and be condemned to failure and misery all their lives.

  • Disabled people on PIP ‘will not cope’ if support is cut, charity warns

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    https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/disabled-people-on-pip-will-not-cope-if-support-cut-charity-warns

    Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall arrives in Downing Street, London, for a Cabinet meeting, March 11, 2025

    ALMOST two-thirds of disabled people on Personal Independence Payments (PIP) “will not cope” without it, a charity has warned, amid reports that the government will reduce the benefit.

    Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall is expected to unveil reforms aimed at reducing welfare costs that ministers have described as “unsustainable.”

    Reports suggest that PIP, the main benefit for working-age adults both in and out of work, could be frozen rather than increased in line with inflation, delivering a real-terms cut for 3.6 million claimants.

    A new analysis from Sense has found that 38 per cent of PIP recipients with complex needs are already behind on energy bills.
    Almost half — 46 per cent — are struggling to afford essential costs such as council tax and water, while 41 per cent are living in debt due to benefits failing to cover the cost of essentials like food.

    Fifty-eight per cent of those polled reported significant ongoing extra costs due to disability and 53 per cent said their PIP payments were insufficient to cover those expenses.

    Sense chief executive James Watson-O’Neill said PIP “exists because living with a disability means facing higher costs, from increased energy bills to specialised equipment and specific diets.”

    “These additional expenses won’t disappear if eligibility is tightened. It will only plunge more disabled people into poverty.

    “Making it harder to access benefits won’t help disabled people find jobs either. It will only deepen the struggle.”

    …

    Article continues at https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/disabled-people-on-pip-will-not-cope-if-support-cut-charity-warns

    Keir Starmer confirms that he's proud to be a red Tory continuing austerity and targeting poor and disabled scum.
    Keir Starmer confirms that he’s proud to be a red Tory continuing austerity and targeting poor and disabled scum.
    Keir Starmer, Angela Rayner and Rachel Reeves wear the uniform of the rich and powerful. They have all had clothes bought for them by multi-millionaire Labour donor Lord Alli. CORRECTION: It appears that Rachel Reeves clothing was provided by Juliet Rosenfeld.
    Keir Starmer, Angela Rayner and Rachel Reeves wear the uniform of the rich and powerful. They have all had clothes bought for them by multi-millionaire Labour donor Lord Alli. CORRECTION: It appears that Rachel Reeves clothing was provided by Juliet Rosenfeld.

    These cuts betray Labour’s basic principles

  • Momentum launches campaign to get Labour MPs to vote down government welfare cuts

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    https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/momentum-launches-campaign-get-labour-mps-vote-down

    LEFT-WING campaign group Momentum has begun lobbying Labour MPs to block cuts to welfare spending.

    A Commons vote is expected after the government’s proposals to reduce spending on benefits sparked an angry backlash among Labour’s grassroots.

    Sir Keir Starmer, who has described the benefits system as the “worst of all worlds,” was jeered at this week’s Prime Minister’s Questions as he insisted that Labour had a duty to reduce social security costs.

    Labour MPs urged him to “provide compassion” to those who cannot work, stressing that disabled people have become “frightened” after hearing their party use the “language of tough choices.”

    Ministers have already pledged to cut £3 billion from the welfare budget over three years and next week are expected to announce in a green paper that billions more will be axed from the main disability benefit, the personal independence payment (PIP) and funding to help those with long-term illness to return to work.

    Cutting PIP could push 700,000 disabled people into poverty, disability charities have warned.

    …

    https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/momentum-launches-campaign-get-labour-mps-vote-down

    Keir Starmer confirms that he's proud to be a red Tory continuing austerity and targeting poor and disabled scum.
    Keir Starmer confirms that he’s proud to be a red Tory continuing austerity and targeting poor and disabled scum.
    Keir Starmer, Angela Rayner and Rachel Reeves wear the uniform of the rich and powerful. They have all had clothes bought for them by multi-millionaire Labour donor Lord Alli. CORRECTION: It appears that Rachel Reeves clothing was provided by Juliet Rosenfeld.
    Keir Starmer, Angela Rayner and Rachel Reeves wear the uniform of the rich and powerful. They have all had clothes bought for them by multi-millionaire Labour donor Lord Alli. CORRECTION: It appears that Rachel Reeves clothing was provided by Juliet Rosenfeld.