Welfare reform on knife edge as Labour rebels consider plans
But it was hard to hear them over the screech of the U-turn made by ministers as they sought to swerve an embarrassing backbench rebellion in a vote tomorrow.
But even since the concessions were made to rebels on Personal Independence Payments and Universal Credit an assessment suggests 150,000 more people could be plunged into poverty by 2030 because of the changes.
Our political editor Gary Gibbon reports.
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BBC News
17 minutes ago
- BBC News
Slow-motion humiliation for Starmer as he loses control of Commons
The extraordinary thing about this is it felt, albeit perhaps just fleetingly, like the fraught and chaotic parliamentary rows about even the bumpy moments for Boris Johnson and Liz is extraordinary to say that because the parallel seems absurd: those moments in recent years happened to prime ministers without their own mandate or much of a majority or when engulfed in the parallel is this: a government transparently not in control of events, shoved around humiliatingly by astonishing thing about this row is Sir Keir Starmer has a mandate and a not only did swathes of his own MPs desert him, Downing Street was insufficiently nimble to first clock the breadth and depth of their anger and then realise quickly enough the scale of what would be necessary to deal with it. Firstly, there was massive U-turn number one, completed the wrong side of midnight in the early hours of last incidental details tell a story at moments like this and the timing of that opening climbdown pointed to the speed with which it had been cobbled here is the thing – the government hoped they had done enough. It quickly became apparent there was a stubborn and sticky group of perhaps about 50 Labour MPs who still would not support the prime yes, and awkward too, but something they could have probably lived with. But would-be rebels kept telling us the numbers were nudging when the government sought to reassure its MPs by presenting details to the Commons on Monday, it only served to make things worse for them - sowing uncertainty among wavering MPs about the specifics of the concessions. Who are the welfare bill rebels? Find out how your MP votedWelfare cuts: What are the Pip and universal credit changes?'We're not scroungers, we want the right to live' By Monday night, those familiar with the whipping spreadsheet were warning that the situation was "touch and go".It was clear from the furrowed brows of senior Labour figures by the middle of Tuesday that there was much more anxiety at the top of government than the public numbers would have yet Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall returned to the Commons and repeated what the government was still intending to do – change the eligibility criteria for the Personal Independence Payment (Pip) in November of next mid-afternoon, Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner was frantically hitting the phones trying to persuade Labour and again, they were worried about then reached Downing Street the numbers might be closer to 75 or 80 rebels – getting very close to the number that would defeat the prime minister had no option. Yet another U turn was sanctioned, leaving his plans appearing threadbare, shorn of their central pillars of just a week so up stepped the Work and Pensions Minister, Sir Stephen Timms, to announce another that decision to concede was met with fury by would-be rebels, many of those who saw the whole thing as a shambles and those Labour MPs who had loyally backed the various changes throughout and so had been asked to endorse three different positions in less than a referring to senior Labour MP Dame Meg Hillier who had campaigned for the first climbdown, told the BBC:"Meg better own any autumn tax rises and go out and sell them on the airwaves every day until the end of the parliament. She marched them all up to the top of the hill and couldn't bring them down again."Other MPs were more pithy."Jokers" said one, referring both to the government and the rebels."Nightmare" was another's assessment of the government officials are more openly contemptuous of Labour MPs than referring to the rebels who were first elected in 2024, said: "What did they think the job was? They all think they're JFK because they delivered some leaflets while Morgan [McSweeney] won them the election."The implications are now believe tax rises in this autumn's budget are Rachel Reeves will still be chancellor to deliver it is being questioned by Labour figures at all suggest that Kendall ought to resign without delay. She has said she wants to carry senior government source argued that though the government had been preparing to lift the two-child benefit cap in the autumn, this would no longer be some at the heart of government are still reeling from a string of interviews given by the prime minister to mark his first anniversary in Downing Street on Friday, taken by some senior figures as a repudiation of the approach he has taken - and therefore of his senior source said: "The atmosphere in there [No 10] is appallingly bad", accusing the prime minister of "dumping on people who are a staunch part of the team".They added: "A lot of it comes back to the question of what does Keir think - about policy and about personnel. It's the question everyone asks all the time because nobody knows."Sir Keir sought to address the personnel element at cabinet on Tuesday, saying he had full confidence in Mr McSweeney, his chief of staff, and that Labour would not have won the general election without this leaves the prime minister and those around him humbled, bruised, reflective, pensive. the economy is flat, politics can often be angry, international backdrop turbulent, the domestic 2020s are no easy time to Sir Keir will know he has to demonstrably get a grip and quickly, after a deeply damaging episode for him.
The Guardian
2 hours ago
- The Guardian
The Guardian view on Europe's heatwave: leaders should remind the public why ambitious targets matter
At times like now, with dangerously high temperatures in several European countries, the urgent need for adaptation to an increasingly unstable climate is clearer than ever. From the French government's decision to close schools to the bans in most of Italy on outdoor work at the hottest time of day, the immediate priority is to protect people from extreme heat – and to recognise that a heatwave can take a higher toll than a violent storm. People who are already vulnerable, due to age or illness or poor housing, face the greatest risks from heatwaves. As well as changes to rules and routines, public health warnings are vital, especially where records are being broken and people are unfamiliar with the conditions. In the scorching European summer of 2022, an estimated 68,000 people died due to heat. Health, welfare and emergency systems must respond to those needing help. Less direct harms include losses in agriculture. In the UK, the British Retail Consortium has blamed reduced crop yields, due to hot weather, for rising food price inflation. Wildfires – such as the one in Chios, Greece, last week – menace buildings, landscapes and wildlife as well as human lives. Last year, the UK government faced strong criticism from the advisory Climate Change Committee for inadequate adaptation plans. Apart from an increase in spending on flood defences, Labour has so far done little to rectify this. The current heatwave ought to change that. With a heat dome that draws in and traps warm air affecting almost all of France, as well as countries further south, the need to prepare is obvious. Good information enables sensible planning; this includes reliable forecasting as well as attribution studies that explain how global heating makes destructive weather more likely. Recent extreme weather in the US, as well as in Europe, highlights the folly of Donald Trump's cuts to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. By withdrawing from the Paris agreement, Mr Trump has made the US a global outlier. But while the EU remains committed to net zero by 2050 – and states are due to discuss an interim target for 2040 this week – support for net zero policies has been eroded in some European countries too over the last few years, particularly where far-right populist leaders have targeted them. Could the current dangerous heat help to refocus minds? Portugal and Spain both recorded new records at the weekend, with temperatures over 46C. This week, scientists at a conference in Exeter are gathering to discuss climate tipping points. Generally this term refers to the passing of dangerous limits – such as melted ice sheets – after which catastrophe becomes much harder to prevent. But Prof Timothy Lenton points out that it can also be used positively. Two examples are the accelerating uptake of solar power and electric vehicles. As well as supporting people to cope with the heat, and promoting adaptations of various kinds (for example, in building and urban design), European leaders should use current conditions to remind the public how much is at stake, and reinforce the importance of ambitious, achievable targets. Climate despair is deadly, but the anxiety produced by recognition of the risks can be harnessed to positive effect. As well as a problem to be dealt with, the heatwave could be viewed as a teachable moment – when the public becomes more receptive to the pressing case for change. Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.
Daily Mail
2 hours ago
- Daily Mail
20,000 small-boat migrants this year and counting: Labour's abject failure to protect our borders laid bare
Labour's abject failure to protect our borders was laid bare today as it emerged a record 20,000 small-boat migrants had reached Britain in the first half of this year. Nearly 900 arrived in Dover from France on Monday, the latest official figures revealed. On top of a confirmed 19,982 arrivals since the start of the year, there were at least 300 more today, and the Mail witnessed scores awaiting a traffickers' 'taxi boat' off the French coast. This means the year's tally has already hit 20,000 – a milestone not reached until mid-August in previous years. Small-boat arrivals are up by 48 per cent on the same period in 2024. The news comes almost exactly a year after Labour took power and scrapped the Conservatives ' Rwanda asylum deal, which was designed to deter migrants from mounting perilous Channel crossings. Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said: 'One year into Labour's Government and the boats haven't stopped – they've multiplied. Labour tore up our deterrent and replaced it with fantasy. 'This is the worst year on record, and it's become a free-for-all. 'We need a removals deterrent so every single illegal immigrant who arrives is removed to a location outside Europe. The crossings will then rapidly stop. 'People are furious – and rightly so. Under new leadership, only the Conservatives have a credible plan to stop the crossings, restore control, and end the chaos.' Tories predicted that this year's annual total could hit a record-breaking 50,000. Since 2018, more than 170,000 migrants have reached Britain by small boat – but only about 4 per cent have been removed. Labour pledged to 'smash the gangs' by placing a new emphasis on law-enforcement tactics. But arrivals are soaring and the number of asylum seekers housed in hotels at the taxpayers' expense has gone up since the election, despite a Labour pledge to end their use. David Wood, the Home Office's former director general of immigration enforcement, told the BBC's Today programme today: 'It won't work, and it never was going to work.' He added that Labour's efforts to gather intelligence on traffickers relied on European police having the resources and determination to make arrests. 'The evidence the strategy doesn't work is it's gone up 40-odd per cent in the last year,' Mr Wood said. It came after the chief inspector of borders and immigration, David Bolt, revealed last week that he wrote to ministers last summer to say he 'wasn't convinced' that their policy would succeed. Pictured: Migrants attempting to cross the English Channel in a small boat in Gravelines, France, on June 30 Even the pro-migrant Refugee Council said Labour's approach was not working. Its chief executive, Enver Solomon, said: 'The fact remains that these measures alone are so far not achieving the intended outcome, with deadly crossings rising.' In 2022 – the year in which there was a record annual total of 45,700 arrivals – the 20,000 point was not passed until August 14. In the following two years it took place at the end of August. Today, the Mail observed some 100 migrants lined up on the bank of a canal at Gravelines, between Calais and Dunkirk. They watched as other migrants tried to fix an outboard engine on a broken-down 'taxi boat'. Two dozen Police Nationale CRS riot squad officers arrived at the scene only after the boat was in the water. Migrants would have attempted to cross to Britain aboard the dinghy, had it not malfunctioned. President Emmanuel Macron's government has finally agreed to change its rules to let gendarmes and other officials intercept dinghies that are already in the water. But one British expert has warned that the new powers – due to come into force this month – will have a negligible impact on illegal migration. President Emmanuel Macron's government has finally agreed to change its rules to let gendarmes and other officials intercept dinghies that are already in the water Lucy Moreton, of the ISU trade union, which represents Border Force staff, said migrants may simply switch to other modes of transport such as yachts and concealing themselves in HGVs. French police unions also are understood to have concerns that their members may be required to enter the water wearing body armour that can weigh up to 6lb, putting them at risk of drowning. Additionally, French officers are said to have raised fears about being unable to carry firearms if they have to go into the sea, because salt water would damage them. But French police colonel Olivier Alary told the BBC last month that they 'will be able to do more' once the new rules come into force. Illegal migration will be one of the key topics addressed by Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and Mr Macron during the French leader's state visit to the UK next week.
