UK PM Starmer gets watered-down welfare bill passed amid Labour uprising
But the 335 to 260 House of Commons victory on Tuesday largely rang hollow, with Starmer forced to soften his promised cuts amid pushback from members of his own Labour Party, in what could represent a crisis for his leadership.
'Welfare reform, let's be honest, is never easy, perhaps especially for Labour governments,' work and pensions minister Liz Kendall told Parliament on Tuesday, acknowledging the party infighting that had defined the debate.
Reporting from London, Al Jazeera's Milena Veselinovic described the vote as a 'victory in name only' for Starmer.
'His government was facing such a huge rebellion from his own Labour MPs that there was no chance that he could pass this bill in the form that it was originally laid out,' she said.
Starmer had ridden into office last year on the back of the largest parliamentary majority in UK history, currently holding 403 of 650 seats. That majority, he maintained, would help him avoid parliamentary dysfunction that had defined the body throughout years of Conservative rule.
But Starmer's signature plan to trim down the UK's ballooning welfare system soon ran into controversy, particularly when it came to disability benefits.
Starmer's plan pitched raising the threshold for the benefits by requiring a higher threshold for physical or mental disability.
That prompted more than 120 Labour lawmakers to publicly say they would vote against the bill. They included Rachael Maskell, one of the leading opponents, who called the cuts 'Dickensian' and said they 'belong to a different era and a different party'.
In concessions to party members, the government backed down on implementing tougher eligibility rules for the payments until a wider review of the welfare system had been completed.
The government also pivoted to only have the reforms apply to future applicants, and not current claimants, as they initially sought.
While the government had at first hoped to save 5 billion pounds ($6.9bn) a year by 2030, the savings under the new plan is estimated to be closer to 2 billion pounds.
'This is a huge blow to the authority of Keir Starmer,' Al Jazeera's Veselinovic said, 'a prime minister who came into power on the back of a massive electoral landslide, who is now unable to pass what his government called flagship legislation without stripping it of nearly all its meaning.'
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Al Jazeera
7 hours ago
- Al Jazeera
UK PM Starmer gets watered-down welfare bill passed amid Labour uprising
United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer has won a key vote in Parliament on a signature plan to overhaul the country's welfare system. But the 335 to 260 House of Commons victory on Tuesday largely rang hollow, with Starmer forced to soften his promised cuts amid pushback from members of his own Labour Party, in what could represent a crisis for his leadership. 'Welfare reform, let's be honest, is never easy, perhaps especially for Labour governments,' work and pensions minister Liz Kendall told Parliament on Tuesday, acknowledging the party infighting that had defined the debate. Reporting from London, Al Jazeera's Milena Veselinovic described the vote as a 'victory in name only' for Starmer. 'His government was facing such a huge rebellion from his own Labour MPs that there was no chance that he could pass this bill in the form that it was originally laid out,' she said. Starmer had ridden into office last year on the back of the largest parliamentary majority in UK history, currently holding 403 of 650 seats. That majority, he maintained, would help him avoid parliamentary dysfunction that had defined the body throughout years of Conservative rule. But Starmer's signature plan to trim down the UK's ballooning welfare system soon ran into controversy, particularly when it came to disability benefits. Starmer's plan pitched raising the threshold for the benefits by requiring a higher threshold for physical or mental disability. That prompted more than 120 Labour lawmakers to publicly say they would vote against the bill. They included Rachael Maskell, one of the leading opponents, who called the cuts 'Dickensian' and said they 'belong to a different era and a different party'. In concessions to party members, the government backed down on implementing tougher eligibility rules for the payments until a wider review of the welfare system had been completed. The government also pivoted to only have the reforms apply to future applicants, and not current claimants, as they initially sought. While the government had at first hoped to save 5 billion pounds ($6.9bn) a year by 2030, the savings under the new plan is estimated to be closer to 2 billion pounds. 'This is a huge blow to the authority of Keir Starmer,' Al Jazeera's Veselinovic said, 'a prime minister who came into power on the back of a massive electoral landslide, who is now unable to pass what his government called flagship legislation without stripping it of nearly all its meaning.'
Al Jazeera
17 hours ago
- Al Jazeera
UK government faces key test in welfare reform bill vote
The United Kingdom's Labour government hopes to limit a rebellion over welfare reform from its own politicians in a key vote in Parliament, just days after attempting to win them over with concessions. Almost a year after his party won a landslide election victory, Prime Minister Keir Starmer faces one of the toughest tests of his premiership on Tuesday, when MPs vote on his government's welfare plans. Angered by proposals to change the eligibility criteria of the country's main disability benefit and to reduce health-related support received by those on low incomes, more than 120 Labour politicians signalled last week that they would be voting against the bill. In a bid to appease them, Downing Street announced a set of concessions on Friday, including a pledge that current claimants of the disability benefit, which is known as the personal independence payment (Pip), would not be affected by the cuts. The government also promised to launch a review into Pip, led by Disability Minister Stephen Timms. Speaking on Friday, senior Labour backbencher Meg Hillier, one of the rebels, described the U-turn as a 'workable compromise'. However, shortly ahead of Tuesday's vote, it appeared that dozens of Labour politicians still opposed the bill, with British media reporting that at least 35 were planning to go against the government. The vote comes after 86 disability and human rights groups issued a joint statement on Monday urging politicians to vote against the welfare reform bill. Rachael Maskell, a Labour MP and critic of the proposal, wrote on X on Monday evening that disabled people 'have yet to have agency in this process'. 'It is time their voices were heard,' she added. The disputes around the government's welfare reform bill have led to questions being asked once more about Starmer, who has a working majority of 165 in the House of Commons. 'It's a failure of leadership for a prime minister with such a big majority to not be able to get their agenda through,' said Rob Ford, a politics professor at the University of Manchester. 'I can't think of many examples of a prime minister in post-war politics suffering such a big setback when presiding over such a strong position in the Commons,' Ford noted. Friday's concessions were not the only time Starmer had made a U-turn in recent weeks. On June 9, his government announced that it was reversing a policy to scrap a winter heating benefit for millions of pensioners. The latest polling shows that Labour is trailing the right-wing populist party Reform UK, which outperformed its rivals in local elections in May.
Qatar Tribune
a day ago
- Qatar Tribune
UK-US deal for lower car and aerospace duties takes effect
Agencies A trade deal cutting tariffs on British exports of automobiles and aerospace equipment to the United States takes effect Monday, as the two sides continue to negotiate over steel duties. 'From today, British car and aerospace manufacturers will benefit from major tariff reductions when exporting to the US, saving thousands of jobs,' the UK Department of Trade said in a statement Monday. London and Washington reached an agreement in May to cut US tariffs on cars from 27.5 percent to 10 percent, with a limit of 100,000 vehicles a year. It also fully eliminated a 10-percent tariff on goods such as engines and aircraft parts. 'Our historic trade deal with the United States delivers for British businesses and protects UK jobs,' Prime Minister Keir Starmer said in the same statement. 'From today, our world-class automotive and aerospace industries will see tariffs slashed, safeguarding key industries that are vital to our economy.' In return, Britain agreed to further open its market to US ethanol and beef. That has raised concerns in the chemical industry and among British farmers, even though the meat would still have to meet UK food safety standards. London is still negotiating for lower tariffs for its steel and aluminum exports to the United States, which has raised its levies to 25 percent. 'We will continue go further and make progress towards zero percent tariffs on core steel products,' the trade department said in the statement. Meanwhile, China will maintain duties on certain steel products from the European Union, the United Kingdom, South Korea and Indonesia, its commerce ministry said Monday, as overcapacity concerns drive global trade turbulence. The duties on stainless steel billets and hot-rolled plates, first levied by Beijing in 2019, range from 20.2 percent for Indonesian imports to 43 percent for those from the EU. China's commerce ministry said that an internal investigation found the potential termination of the anti-dumping duties could still cause 'damage' to the domestic stainless steel industry. Authorities will therefore continue to impose duties on products from the three countries and the European bloc 'for a period of five years starting from July 1', the ministry said in a statement. China, the world's largest steel producer, first took the measures in response to tariffs imposed on it by the United States during Donald Trump's first presidential term. The US tariffs were motivated by fears in Washington and among its allies that unfair industrial policies in China had led to a global glut of cheap exports, threatening to undercut local producers. Since returning to office in January, Trump has sent the world economy into a tailspin with a tariff blitz that has hit Chinese exports particularly hard. Trade tensions between the world's top two economies remain high despite China and the United States reaching a temporary truce to the tariff war.
