Latest news with #MegHillier
Sky News
8 hours ago
- Business
- Sky News
This has been Starmer's most damaging U-turn yet - but the bigger cost is the political one
Why you can trust Sky News It has been a painful week to watch. A U-turn in slow motion, culminating in a midnight climbdown as Number 10 agreed to concede to defiant MPs on Thursday night. The concessions are considerable. They mean, among other compromises, that existing claimants of personal independence payments (PIP) and the health aspect of Universal Credit will be protected from welfare reforms. Some MPs, like Diane Abbott and Nadia Whittome, remain unconvinced, but they were never high on the list of rebels the government expected to persuade. Ministers now hope that with the backing of MPs like Dame Meg Hillier, the chair of the Treasury Select Committee, the bill will pass the Commons. Their problems won't end there, though. Firstly, there is the question of money. The Resolution Foundation estimates the concessions will cost £3bn of the £5bn the chancellor hoped to save from the welfare reforms. The prime minister 's spokesperson says the changes will be fully funded in the budget and there will be no permanent increase in borrowing. They won't comment on any potential tax rises to plug the gap in Rachel Reeves's finances. The bigger cost, though, is the political one. A year ago, when Sir Keir Starmer strode into Downing Street with a thumping majority, few could have imagined how the last few days would play out. More than 120 MPs, nearly a third of the parliamentary Labour party and more than the total number of Tory MPs, publicly prepared to rebel on a flagship policy. How did it come to this? How did the prime minister, and the people around him, not see a rebellion coming when there had been signs MPs weren't happy for weeks? Those are the questions being asked by senior Labour figures behind the scenes. Sir Keir's spokesperson says the prime minister consistently engages with colleagues, and parliamentary engagement takes many forms. But a lack of engagement with backbenchers has led to the prime minister's most damaging U-turn yet, and this week will haunt the prime minister beyond Tuesday's crunch vote.
Yahoo
9 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
This week will haunt the prime minister after his most damaging U-turn yet
It has been a painful week to watch. A U-turn in slow motion, culminating in a midnight climbdown as Number 10 agreed to concede to defiant MPs on Thursday night. The concessions are considerable. They mean, among other compromises, that existing claimants of personal independence payments (PIP) and the health aspect of Universal Credit will be protected from welfare reforms. 👉 Follow Electoral Dysfunction on your podcast app 👈 Some MPs, like and Nadia Whittome, remain unconvinced, but they were never high on the list of rebels the government expected to persuade. Ministers now hope that with the backing of MPs like Dame Meg Hillier, the chair of the Treasury Select Committee, the bill will pass the Commons. Their problems won't end there, though. Firstly, there is the question of money. The Resolution Foundation estimates the concessions will cost £3bn of the £5bn the hoped to save from the welfare reforms. The 's spokesperson says the changes will be fully funded in the budget and there will be no permanent increase in borrowing. They won't comment on any potential tax rises to plug the gap in Rachel Reeves' finances. The bigger cost, though, is the political one. A year ago, when Sir Keir Starmer strode into Downing Street with a thumping majority, few could have imagined how the last few days would play out. Read more: More than 120 MPs, nearly a third of the parliamentary party and more than the total number of Tory MPs, publicly prepared to rebel on a flagship policy. How did it come to this? How did the prime minister, and the people around him, not see a rebellion coming when there had been signs MPs weren't happy for weeks? Those are the questions being asked by senior Labour figures behind the scenes. Sir Keir's spokesperson says the prime minister consistently engages with colleagues, and parliamentary engagement takes many forms. But a lack of engagement with backbenchers has led to the prime minister's most damaging U-turn yet, and this week will haunt the prime minister beyond Tuesday's crunch vote.
Sky News
9 hours ago
- Business
- Sky News
This week will haunt the prime minister after his most damaging U-turn yet
Why you can trust Sky News It has been a painful week to watch. A U-turn in slow motion, culminating in a midnight climbdown as Number 10 agreed to concede to defiant MPs on Thursday night. The concessions are considerable. They mean, among other compromises, that existing claimants of personal independence payments (PIP) and the health aspect of Universal Credit will be protected from welfare reforms. Some MPs, like Diane Abbott and Nadia Whittome, remain unconvinced, but they were never high on the list of rebels the government expected to persuade. Ministers now hope that with the backing of MPs like Dame Meg Hillier, the chair of the Treasury Select Committee, the bill will pass the Commons. Their problems won't end there, though. Firstly, there is the question of money. The Resolution Foundation estimates the concessions will cost £3bn of the £5bn the chancellor hoped to save from the welfare reforms. The prime minister 's spokesperson says the changes will be fully funded in the budget and there will be no permanent increase in borrowing. They won't comment on any potential tax rises to plug the gap in Rachel Reeves' finances. The bigger cost, though, is the political one. A year ago, when Sir Keir Starmer strode into Downing Street with a thumping majority, few could have imagined how the last few days would play out. More than 120 MPs, nearly a third of the parliamentary Labour party and more than the total number of Tory MPs, publicly prepared to rebel on a flagship policy. How did it come to this? How did the prime minister, and the people around him, not see a rebellion coming when there had been signs MPs weren't happy for weeks? Those are the questions being asked by senior Labour figures behind the scenes. Sir Keir's spokesperson says the prime minister consistently engages with colleagues, and parliamentary engagement takes many forms. But a lack of engagement with backbenchers has led to the prime minister's most damaging U-turn yet, and this week will haunt the prime minister beyond Tuesday's crunch vote.
Irish Times
15 hours ago
- Business
- Irish Times
Starmer shifts welfare cuts to new applicants only, in bid to avert Labour rebellion
UK prime minister Keir Starmer sharply scaled back planned welfare cuts on Friday to quell a rebellion by lawmakers in his governing Labour Party , the latest dent in his authority just a year after winning power. Planned changes to make it tougher to collect some disability and sickness benefits would now apply only to new applicants, while the millions of people who already rely on the benefits will no longer be affected, the government said. More than 100 Labour MPs had publicly opposed Mr Starmer's reforms, which sought to shave £5 billion (€5.8 billion) a year off a rapidly rising welfare bill. The revolt had meant Mr Starmer faced a potential defeat in a vote on the changes in parliament next week – a year after he won a landslide majority in a national election. READ MORE 'We have listened to MPs who support the principle of reform but are worried about the pace of change for those already supported by the system,' a spokesperson for Mr Starmer's office said. [ Vote on Keir Starmer's disability cuts Bill faces major challenge from Labour rebels Opens in new window ] In a letter to MPs, work and pensions minister Liz Kendall confirmed that only new claimants would be subject to the planned tightening of eligibility. 'Our reform principles remain; to target funding for those most in need and make sure the system is sustainable for the future to support generations to come,' Ms Kendall said. Labour MP Meg Hillier, who chairs an influential parliamentary committee and had spearheaded the efforts to water down the Bill, welcomed the government's move as 'a good and workable compromise'. The government did not set out the cost of the change in policy. Care minister Stephen Kinnock said that details would come in the next budget, which is due in the autumn. Ruth Curtice, chief executive of think tank Resolution Foundation and a former senior finance ministry official, said the compromise would reduce the government's savings by about £3 billion a year of the original planned £5 billion. A spokesperson for Mr Starmer said details of the plan would be set out before the vote on Tuesday, but 'these changes will be fully funded, there will be no permanent increase in borrowing'. The spokesperson declined to comment on possible tax rises. It was the third big U-turn for Starmer's government, following a reversal in unpopular cuts to payments to pensioners for fuel to heat homes in the winter, and a decision to hold an inquiry into the authorities' response to gangs that groomed girls for sex, after having said no such inquiry was needed. [ Irishman Morgan McSweeney: the softly-spoken chief of staff to Keir Starmer now facing questions Opens in new window ] Mr Starmer has argued that Britain's disability benefits system is too costly to sustain, and makes it too difficult for people who can work to do so, by penalising them for their earnings. Campaigners said that even if existing claimants are exempt, the changes would still harm too many people. Disability UK, a charity, said it rejected a 'two-tier system' that would deny new claimants benefits that existing claimants can receive. 'It is not a massive concession to have a benefit system where future generations of disabled people receive less support than disabled people today,' said Mikey Erhardt, the group's policy lead. The opposition Conservative Party's work and pensions policy chief, Helen Whately, said the decision was humiliating for Mr Starmer, and represented a missed opportunity to cut the welfare bill. 'Starmer ducked the challenge – leaving taxpayers to pick up the bill,' she said in a post on X. Annual spending on incapacity and disability benefits already exceeds Britain's defence budget and is set to top £100 billion by 2030, according to official forecasts, up from £65 billion now. But the plans to cut payments to some of the most vulnerable in society have proven particularly painful for MPs in the centre-left Labour Party, which founded the state-run National Health Service and sees itself as the protector of the welfare state built after the second World War. Despite Mr Starmer's concessions, one Labour MP, Peter Lamb, said he would still vote down the Bill 'alone' if necessary. 'To me, it's insufficient when better options have repeatedly been put forward and ignored,' Mr Lamb said on X. – Reuters (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2025
The National
17 hours ago
- Business
- The National
Scotland reacts as Labour announce 'two-tier' benefits U-turn
The Labour UK Government has been forced into a partial U-turn on its welfare reform bill after more than 120 party MPs threatened to rebel against the government in a vote next week. As part of the concessions, people who currently receive Personal Independence Payments (PIP), or the health element of Universal Credit, will continue to do so. But planned cuts to these payments will still hit future claimants, with the fresh package of measures now being branded as a 'two-tier system' that will see the 'young treated worse than the old'. The new plan still keeps in place proposals to change the eligibility criteria for PIP for future claimants. READ MORE: No changes to council tax 'in this decade', says Scottish Government Shirley-Anne Somerville, Scotland's Social Justice Secretary, has criticised the 'backroom late night deal', highlighting disabled people had still not been consulted on the plans. And she has stressed such measures will not be implemented in Scotland. She posted on Twitter/X: 'A two-tier system cannot be a fair system. 'That's what disabled people would have told the Labour Government if they had actually asked them rather than making a backroom late night deal with their own MPs. 'And this half U-turn still does not scrap the 4+ points rule which will prevent support for 100,000s with diffuse disabilities in the future. @scotgov will not follow Labour's lead on any of these changes.' Scotland does not have PIP and instead has a separate devolved payment known as the Adult Disability Payment, but decisions made in London on disability benefits will still impact on Scotland financially. The concessions have gone down well with some of the Labour rebels including ringleader Meg Hillier (below), who is now expected to withdraw her reasoned amendment that had been signed by nearly 130 Labour MPs, including 12 Scottish ones. (Image: House of Commons/UK Parliament/PA Wire) But others have stressed the plan remains inadequate, with Labour MP Nadia Whittome saying the revised proposals are 'nowhere near good enough'. She BBC Radio 4's Today programme that cutting disability benefits will 'in the long-term mean more spending because it has knock-on consequences'. 'Voting for this bill would mean pulling up the ladder and baking in poverty for future disabled people,' she went on. Peter Lamb, Labour MP for Crawley, also wrote on social media that he would still not support the bill, calling the changes "insufficient" and accusing ministers of ignoring better options. Scottish Labour MP Brian Leishman said the concessions were "not enough because disabled people will still become poorer". SNP MP Pete Wishart said he hoped the rebels would stand firm and continue to oppose the bill. Sharing news of the changes, he tweeted: 'Not nearly good enough. A two-tier system which will depend on when you claim for your support. Let's hope the 'rebellion' won't settle for this.' Former Labour MSP Neil Findlay also said that MPs 'need to stand firm and see off Government attempts to divide those opposed to their dreadful cuts.' READ MORE: Question Time called out as Reform councillor on St Andrews panel SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn said Keir Starmer is 'on the brink of creating a two-tier disability system where the young will be treated worse than the old'. He added: 'The message from the Labour Party is clear – if you have an accident that causes a disability, develop a disability over time or if you have a child with a disability you will receive less support than those who have come before you." If the legislation passes on Tuesday, it will then face a few hours' examination by all MPs the following week, rather than days or weeks in front of a committee.
