UK leader Starmer waters down planned welfare cuts after revolt in his Labour Party
LONDON — British Prime Minister Keir Starmer gave way to political pressure on Friday, watering down planned welfare reforms to avoid defeat by his own party's lawmakers. It's the latest forced U-turn for a center-left government caught between conflicting goals of cutting spending and improving public services.
The government planned to bring a bill to Parliament next week that would tighten eligibility for a key disability benefit, removing the Personal Independence Payment from hundreds of thousands of people with long-term physical or mental health conditions. Another health-related benefit received by people on low incomes would also be reduced under the plans.
The government said the proposed changes would help people find jobs while preserving a safety net for those who can never work. It would also save an estimated 5 billion pounds ($7 billion) a year from a welfare bill that has ballooned since the COVID-19 pandemic.
But many Labour lawmakers balked at the changes, which the Institute for Fiscal Studies think tank estimated would cut the income of 3.2 million people by 2030.
More than 120 of the 403 Labour legislators signed a motion that would effectively kill the bill if it were to be passed. Defeat at the hands of his own party in the vote planned for Tuesday would have seriously damaged Starmer's authority.
To avoid that, the government said it would ensure no one who currently receives the PIP benefit will lose it.
Starmer was elected a year ago in a landslide victory, winning a commanding majority of seats in the House of Commons. Since then his popularity has plunged as a sluggish economy and stubbornly high inflation resist efforts to raise living standards and ease a cost-of-living squeeze.
Even as Starmer enjoyed success on the world stage – charming U.S. President Donald Trump and securing a trade deal to exempt Britain from some U.S. tariffs – Labour lawmakers have grown restive at the party's sagging poll ratings and the rise of the hard-right Reform U.K. party led by Nigel Farage .
Starmer has been forced into several U-turns. In May the government dropped a plan to end winter home heating subsidies for millions of retirees. Last week Starmer announced a national inquiry into organized child sexual abuse, something he was pressured to do by opposition politicians — and Elon Musk .
The government insists that major changes to welfare are needed to deal with a 'broken' system inherited from the previous Conservative government. It says the spending cuts it is making will be balanced by new money and support to help people who are able to work find jobs. The government wants to reduce the number of working-age people who are economically inactive through long-term sickness, which it says stand at 2.8 million, the highest rate of any G7 nation.
At a NATO summit on Wednesday, Starmer dismissed griping about the welfare plans as 'noises off.' But the next day, he insisted he was listening to party rebels.
'All colleagues want to get this right, and so do I,' Starmer said.
'We want to see reform implemented with Labour values of fairness,' he told lawmakers. 'That conversation will continue in the coming days, so we can begin making change together on Tuesday.'
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