Prime Minister Keir Starmer speaks during a reception for London Tech Week, at no 10 Downing Street, London, June 10, 2025
MPs will vote next week on welfare cuts aimed at disabled people, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and Deputy Leader Angela Rayner pledged today.
Playing a game of chicken with the growing number of Labour rebels prepared to defy the government on the issue, Sir Keir pledged to press ahead with his savage cuts.
One Labour MP described it as a “charge of the political light brigade” by Blairite budgetary hardliners.
But Sir Keir told LBC radio that “there’ll be a vote on Tuesday, we’re going to make sure we reform the welfare system,” while Ms Rayner told MPs simply: “We will go ahead on Tuesday.”
This does not mean that the debate will definitely proceed as planned, only that Downing Street has not yet made a final determination.
The number of Labour MPs prepared to back an amendment which would end all progress on the Bill has risen to over 120.
This would mean that Sir Keir could only prevail with Tory support.
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch is flirting with backing the government, but is demanding a pledge of no tax increases in the autumn Budget in return, something no government could offer while retaining any self-respect.
Sir Keir now faces several choices, all damaging to his political future.
Liz Kendall urged her colleagues to support the bill; however, dozens of backbenchers have already signed the amendment seeking to kill it off. Photograph: James Veysey/Shutterstock
Amendment intended to kill off legislation that would cut benefits could be backed by up to 100 Labour MPs including senior figures
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Dozens of backbench MPs have signed the amendment. Government whips have already been steeling themselves for a rebellion on the welfare bill when it is first voted on next week.
A senior MP said: “The government hasn’t listened to private concerns so now will have to address these very public ones.”
The aim would be to pass a so-called “reasoned amendment”, which halts the passage of a bill. It means the bill would not pass its second reading, saying that provisions “have not been subject to a formal consultation with disabled people, or co-produced with them, or their carers”.
It also says the bill should not pass until the Office for Budget Responsibility can publish its analysis of the employment impact of the changes this autumn. The amendment adds that most of the additional employment support funding will not be in place until the end of the decade.
It notes the government’s own impact assessment estimates that 250,000 people will be pushed into poverty as a result of the provisions, including 50,000 children. It calls for an assessment of the impact of the changes on health or care needs and for the conclusion of other reviews.
Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves meeting members of the military during a visit to Rheinmetall BAE Systems Land (RBSL) in Telford, Shropshire, for an announcement on defence funding, March 24, 2025
While promising massive housebuilding with ‘no fiscal cost,’ DIANE ABBOTT MP reveals the government relies on planning reforms alone rather than public investment, as military expansion becomes the only significant investment
IN POLITICS, one should never over-promise and then under-deliver. At the same time, overall policy should be grounded in something more than wishful thinking. It is highly regrettable that the Chancellor made both these errors in delivering her Spring Statement.
Before the statement, all the talk was of enormous sums that would become available for desperately needed investment. At the same time, there was a strong campaign to refute any idea that the government was pursuing yet another round in the failed austerity experiment of its predecessors.
In the event, both were untrue. The actual new investment is extremely small and is mostly directed towards military and security investment, which is a completely wasteful and dangerous diversion of resources. A somewhat larger sum is planned to be “saved” by yet further attacks on welfare.
In effect, more spending on the military is being paid for by more attacks on the vulnerable, the sick and disabled people.
The Treasury has itemised the sums which illustrate these dangerously wrong priorities. By 2029-30, they project that the annual total of capital investment will have increased by £4.6 billion. But most of this does not properly fall into the category of investment at all, because it is military spending. You cannot produce something else from bombs, bullets and missiles.
Once military and security funding are excluded, real new productive investment amounts to less than £1.9bn at the end of this parliament. It does not qualify as investment. In terms of impact on the economy or living standards, it is a trivial amount.
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Military spending is the only significant area of government spending which is seeing any significant rise in government capital spending. It aligns with Trump’s policy and begins to meet his demands. But we know that he will come back for more. There is already talk of doubling military spending as a proportion of GDP to 5 per cent.
Now, and in the future, that can only come from cutting spending elsewhere. Of course, if the economy were booming, then increases in welfare, in spending on public services, in genuine public investment and even increases in military spending could all take place simultaneously. But no-one is suggesting a boom is likely or even possible.
In reality, the rise in military spending is only possible by restraining spending on public services and cutting welfare. This increased military budget is being paid for by sick and disabled people. The economy will not get the public investment it needs and living standards and public services will both remain constrained. These choices are morally, politically and economically wrong.
Diane Abbott is Labour MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington.
Keir Starmer says that the Labour Party under his leadership all feel a small part of Scunthorpe.Keir Starmer confirms that he’s proud to be a red Tory continuing austerity and targeting poor and disabled scum.
House of Commons Handout photo issued by the House of Commons of Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves delivers her Government’s spending review to MPs in the House of Commons, London, June 11, 2025
UNIONS will not accept any benefit cuts that plunge the most vulnerable further into poverty, TUC general secretary Paul Nowak told GMB Congress today.
Speaking before Chancellor Rachel Reeves delivered her spending review, he told delegates in Brighton that ”if 2024 was a year of change, 2025 has to be a year of deliver, a year where the government makes good its promises to working people.”
He said the first of three priorities for the union federation this year was ”to make sure the government delivers its manifesto commitments that won it the election last year.
”I want ministers to also think again on their current plans to reform social security,” Mr Nowak said. ”Nobody unable to work should be left out of pocket and nobody in work at the moment or looking for work should see their benefits cut to balance the nation’s books.
”When it comes to social security, we cannot and will not accept the most vulnerable being plunged further into poverty.”
Keir Starmer says that the Labour Party under his leadership all feel a small part of Scunthorpe.Keir Starmer explains the moral case for cutting disability benefits. He says work will set you free.
Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall. File pic: PA
Liz Kendall rejects calls to delay the changes until a full assessment is carried out of the impact on employment, poverty and health.
The government has told MPs it will not back down from its controversial reforms to disability benefits, which are set to be introduced to parliament later this month.
More than 100 Labour MPs are thought to have concerns about the plans to cut nearly £5bn from the welfare bill by restricting personal independence payments (PIP) and the health top-up to Universal Credit.
Charities say the changes will have a “catastrophic” effect on vulnerable people.
The chair of the Commons’ Work and Pensions Committee wrote to the secretary of state, Liz Kendall, last month, calling on the government to delay the changes until a full assessment is carried out of the impact on employment, poverty and health.
Labour MP Debbie Abrahams wrote that while there was a case for reform to disability benefits, “the evidence indicated [these changes] might not improve outcomes for most claimants, but instead push many into poverty and further away from the labour market”.
‘Reforms are needed now’
But Ms Kendall has written back, in a letter made public on Wednesday, to reject the idea because the bill needs final approval from parliament in November in order for the changes to take effect in 2026.
Keir Starmer says that the Labour Party under his leadership all feel a small part of Scunthorpe.Keir Starmer explains the moral case for cutting disability benefits. He says work will set you free.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer speaks during a reception for London Tech Week, at no 10 Downing Street, London, June 10, 2025
