Starmer says welfare reform vote will go ahead despite mounting Labour revolt
Sir Keir Starmer faces the biggest parliamentary test of his authority when the legislation comes to the Commons next week.
Sir Keir Starmer and Angela Rayner have insisted he will have a showdown with Labour rebels over the welfare reforms which have split the party.
The Prime Minister said the Commons vote would go ahead on Tuesday as planned despite 120 Labour MPs publicly backing a move to block the legislation.
Sir Keir said his party was elected “to change that which is broken” and the welfare system “doesn’t work for anyone”.
Insisting the Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill would not be pulled in the face of the mounting rebellion, Sir Keir told LBC: “There’ll be a vote on Tuesday, we’re going to make sure we reform the welfare system.”
Deputy Prime Minister Ms Rayner told MPs: “We will go ahead on Tuesday.”
The legislation plans to restrict eligibility for the personal independence payment, the main disability payment in England, and limit the sickness-related element of universal credit, with the aim of getting more people back into work and saving up to £5 billion a year.
Existing claimants will be given a 13-week phase-out period of financial support, a move seen as a bid to head off opposition.
But the fact so many Labour MPs are prepared to put their names to a “reasoned amendment”, a move which would stop the Bill in its tracks, shows how entrenched the opposition is.
Defending the plans while at the Nato summit in The Hague, Sir Keir said the current system “traps people in a position where they can’t get into work”.
“In fact, it’s counterproductive, it works against them getting into work,” he said.
“So we have to reform it, and that is a Labour argument, it’s a progressive argument.”
The rebels argue that disabled people have not been properly consulted about the plan and say further analysis is required before making any changes.
Social security minister Sir Stephen Timms said he was “looking forward to the debate” next week.
He told the Commons Work and Pensions Committee the changes need to be made urgently to cut the spiralling welfare bill.
Committee chairwoman Debbie Abrahams, who is one of the Labour MPs to have signed the amendment to block the legislation, asked why the provisions within the Bill had not been consulted on.
Sir Stephen said: “Essentially because of the urgency of the changes needing to be made.”
He said the cost of Pip had gone up from £12 billion before the pandemic to £22 billion last year “and that is not a sustainable trajectory”.
Setting out the impact of the reforms, he told the Committee 370,000 people getting Pip under the current system would not be receiving it by the end of the decade
“That will be a number of people whose income is lower,” he said.
“Of course, I’d love it for many of those to be able to move into work, and we’re going to be providing the employment support to make that ambition realistic for people in a way that it hasn’t been in the past. ”
Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham added his voice to the senior figures calling on the Government to reconsider.
He told BBC Newsnight: “When the PLP (Parliamentary Labour Party) delivers its collective wisdom in such numbers, it is invariably right. And it is right on this.
“I would say to the Government, listen to the PLP.”
His comments came after his London counterpart, Sir Sadiq Khan, said that ministers “must urgently think again” about the plans.
Labour’s First Minister of Wales Baroness Eluned Morgan has also called for a rethink of the plans.
Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall, who has already taken steps to soften the impact of the welfare Bill, has been locked in talks with backbenchers as she seeks to win over those opposed to the measures.
Meanwhile, Kemi Badenoch said the Tories would lend the Government votes to pass the legislation but only if Labour rules out tax rises in the autumn budget as well as reducing unemployment and lowering the welfare budget.