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Starmer still faces Labour anger over risk of ‘two-tier' disability benefits

The Guardian

4 hours ago

Politics
The Guardian

Starmer still faces Labour anger over risk of ‘two-tier' disability benefits

Keir Starmer is battling to stem the revolt over his cuts to disability benefits, with about 50 Labour MPs concerned the new concessions will create a 'two-tier' system where existing and new claimants are treated differently. Senior government sources insisted things were 'moving in the right direction' for No 10, with the whips phoning backbenchers to persuade them to support the bill on Tuesday. Government insiders said they believed they had peeled off enough of the original 120-plus Labour opponents of the legislation to win the vote, after the work and pensions secretary, Liz Kendall, promised to exempt current disability claimants from the changes, and to increase the health element of universal credit in line with inflation. However, rebel MPs will attempt to lay a new amendment on Monday giving colleagues a chance to delay the bill, which will still involve £2.5bn of cuts to future disability benefits. The continuing row over the changes is likely to blight the week that will mark the first anniversary of Labour's return to power. In an interview on Thursday, Starmer admitted to a range of mistakes – including using the phrase 'an island of strangers' in an immigration speech, and hiring his former chief of staff Sue Gray. His government has made a series of U-turns in the last 12 months, but his handling of the welfare bill might be the most damaging episode of them all. Starmer will next week be hoping to draw a line under the difficult period, in which the government has also reversed cuts to winter fuel payments and changed course over holding an inquiry into grooming gangs. Dozens of Labour MPs are continuing to criticise the welfare cuts on a Labour WhatsApp group. Many MPs are still undecided about how they will vote and are pressing for more assurances that it is ethical and legal to set up a division between current and future claimants. Disability charities have said the bill remains 'fatally flawed' and will lead to an 'unequal future' for different groups of disabled people, making life harder for hundreds of thousands of future claimants. The government confirmed on Friday night that people who have to make new claims for Pip after November 2026 will be assessed under the new criteria. This means those reapplying after losing their Pip or who have fluctuating health conditions will not have the level of their previous awards protected. Starmer defended the bill on Friday, saying it struck the right balance. The changes will protect 370,000 existing recipients who were expected to lose out after reassessment. The prime minister said: 'We talked to colleagues, who've made powerful representations, as a result of which we've got a package which I think will work, we can get it right.' Asked how the government would pay for the £3bn of concessions, which experts believe will have to be funded by tax rises or extra borrowing, Starmer replied: 'The funding will be set out in the budget in the usual way, as you'd expect, later in the year.' There would need to be at least 80 rebels to defeat the bill, and government sources were quietly confident they had given enough ground after Meg Hillier, the chair of the Treasury committee, said she would back the legislation following changes. Others were unconvinced. One leading rebel said 'everyone but a handful of people is unhappy', even if they do end up reluctantly backing the changed legislation. Another expressed frustration that No 10 and the whips were 'trying to bounce people into agreeing before we've seen enough details'. Rachael Maskell, the Labour MP for York Central, a leading opponent of the bill, said: 'They are going to have to go back to the negotiating table … deaf and disabled people's organisations are rejecting these changes as it fails to address future need and gives no security for people with fluctuating conditions, for instance where people are in remission.' Other critics who plan to vote against the bill include the MP for Crawley, Peter Lamb, who said: 'Despite many improvements to the system set out in the bill, at its core the bill remains a cost-cutting exercise. No matter the level of involvement of disability groups in co-producing a scheme for new applicants, to save money the new scheme has to result in people with high levels of need losing the support necessary to wash themselves, dress themselves and feed themselves.' Sign up to Headlines UK Get the day's headlines and highlights emailed direct to you every morning after newsletter promotion Simon Opher, the MP for Stroud, said he still opposed the bill. 'The changes do not tackle the eligibility issues that are at the heart of many of the problems with Pip [personal independence payments]. The bill should be scrapped and we should start again and put the needs of disabled people at the centre of the process.' Diane Abbott, a leading figure from the left of Labour, said the rebellion was 'far from over', while another Labour MP said: 'The bill starts from the premise of cuts, not reform. It's also arse about face in terms of impact assessments and co-production. It's simply a negotiated dog's dinner. In that sense, nothing has really changed except the fact they've negotiated more [people to] misguidedly to sign up to it.' One thing Labour MPs are pushing for is more clarity on the review of the Pip system, due to be done before autumn by Stephen Timms, a work and pensions minister. Many expect that process to change the points system from the current proposals. Some in the party also want Starmer to reinstate Vicky Foxcroft, who quit as a whip to vote against the bill before the U-turn was made. Stella Creasy, a leading Labour MP who had initially signed the amendment to delay the bill, said she wanted to see more details. 'We need to understand why we would treat one group of claimants differently from another,' she said. A Labour MP from the 2024 intake said: 'I'm waiting to look at the details before making any decisions. Many are in the same place as me and need to get something more than a midnight email on an issue of this much importance to hundreds of thousands of people.' The Labour MPs opposed to the changes are citing a fundamental rejection of the idea that a Labour government will be making disabled people worse off. At the same time, many of them have also been alienated by what they say is a No 10 operation that is out of touch with the parliamentary party, and has tried to strongarm MPs into backing the legislation with threats and promises of preferment. 'Good will has been lost and there is still huge suspicion about whether they will try and pull a stunt at the last minute,' said one Labour MP. The majority of disability charities and campaign groups still opposed the cuts. Ellen Clifford, from Disabled People Against Cuts, said: 'Many people who rely on Pip to survive have fluctuating conditions which means our support needs can go up and down. By penalising existing claimants if we go out of and then go back to the benefits system depending on our health, more people will be denied the support they need. 'This is exactly why no disabled people's organisation across the whole of the UK has welcomed these concessions because we know the complexities of the social security system and bitter experience from years of cuts that there are many ways in which grand sweeping statements about protections translate to very little in practice when you go into the detail of it.' The disability equality charity Scope said that despite the concessions, an estimated 430,000 future disabled claimants would be affected by 2029-30. Its strategy director, James Taylor, said: 'It is encouraging that the government is starting to listen to disabled people and MPs who have been campaigning for change for months. But these plans will still rip billions from the welfare system. 'The proposed concessions will create a two-tier benefits system and an unequal future for disabled people. Life costs more if you are disabled. And these cuts will have a devastating effect on disabled people's health, ability to live independently or work.' Additional reporting by Frances Ryan

The Labour plot to bring down Morgan McSweeney... and then Rachel Reeves

Telegraph

a day ago

Politics
Telegraph

The Labour plot to bring down Morgan McSweeney... and then Rachel Reeves

Sir Keir Starmer's original plan for his flagship welfare cuts bill lies in tatters, and, if some Labour rebels have their way, the career of the Prime Minister's divisive chief of staff Morgan McSweeney will go with it. Not since Labour got into power nearly a year ago has there been such naked plotting against senior figures in Number 10. McSweeney is the main target, though there are dark murmurings about forcing a wider clear-out of his centrist acolytes – and there are Labour MPs who are hoping the ultimate casualty of the infighting will be the Chancellor, Rachel Reeves. Such is the level of fury directed at the Downing Street operation from the Labour backbenches that even Sir Keir's own future as leader is a matter of debate. For the first time, following his humiliating climbdown on welfare cuts, some bookmakers now have him odds-on to be replaced before the next election. The toxicity within Labour may not yet be at the level it was during the Corbyn years, but it is heading in that direction, and McSweeney – regarded by many as Sir Keir's political brain – has become the lens through which the party's deep divisions are now being exposed. Despite a supposed clear out of Corbynites before the last election (overseen by McSweeney himself), plenty of stubborn Left-wingers remain, including members of the 2024 intake of Labour MPs who are now part of the rebellion against the welfare bill. On Thursday night it emerged that Sir Keir had made huge concessions, including exempting existing disability benefit claimants from his planned cuts. Hardliners are still demanding he go further and could yet vote against the bill. Many of the rebels blame McSweeney for what they regard as Right-wing policies designed to stop working-class Labour voters leaching away to Reform UK, including welfare cuts, and hold him responsible for steering Sir Keir in what they see as the wrong direction. Speculation over McSweeney's position was further ramped up by Downing Street's refusal on Thursday to say whether Sir Keir still had full confidence in him. 'We would never comment on members of Downing Street staff,' a Number 10 spokesman said. 'The Prime Minister is fully focused on the job in hand.' One Labour rebel said: 'I think the people driving [the welfare bill] aren't elected individuals. Rachel [Reeves] is definitely a part of it, that part of the party, but it's Morgan and [Parliamentary Labour Party secretary] Matt Faulding and others in the Number 10 operation that are driving this.' McSweeney's detractors are not confined to Left-wingers or rebels. One Starmer loyalist on the Right of the party said: 'McSweeney is an arrogant s--- and if you believe you are God's gift and you know it all, then you don't consult with people who have had the experience in the past to help you come up with the right answers.' Officials and Labour staff whisper about McSweeney's supposedly messianic ability to understand voters and what they want from a political party. He sits at the centre of the Downing Street operation, directing both policy and political strategy with the help of a core group of aides. Those who have worked with McSweeney say that, despite his reputation as a factional mob boss, he speaks softly, cares for his colleagues and can be fun to be around. He likes Star Wars, keeps cats with his wife (the Labour MP Imogen Walker) and speaks fondly of his home in County Cork. In group meetings he tends to intervene rarely, preferring to listen to colleagues and hold one-on-one conversations later to give his feedback. Outside of the office, staff say they genuinely enjoy his company. At special-adviser events, usually held in a Westminster pub, he drinks beer and joins in banter about the news of the day. 'He gives as good as he gets,' a Government source has said. As Sir Keir's most trusted aide, he has also been tasked with becoming friendly with some of the more troublesome Cabinet ministers who are outside the Starmerite fold. They include Angela Rayner, the woman directly elected as Labour's deputy leader by party members, who would probably not have been chosen for the role by Sir Keir. 'Morgan is a bit of an Ange whisperer,' a party source has said. McSweeney also gets on with Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy and Health Secretary Wes Streeting, who are thought to be harbouring leadership ambitions of their own. Sir Keir is reluctant to bow to pressure to sack McSweeney for several reasons. When the 48-year-old Irishman was head of the think thank Labour Together, he masterminded the campaign to oust Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader and replace him with Sir Keir. Ruthless on policy, McSweeney is a man without whom the lawyerly Sir Keir would be seriously, even mortally, weakened. Having already lost his original chief of staff, Sue Gray, following an earlier round of infighting, sacking McSweeney would also amount to an admission by Sir Keir that he had taken his eye off the ball, adding to the sense of chaos hanging over Downing Street. Starmerites – including Reeves, Streeting and Minister for Intergovernmental Relations Pat McFadden – believe that McSweeney, like Boris Johnson's chief aide Dominic Cummings, is unfairly being singled out for criticism simply because he is the best-known aide in Downing Street. McSweeney is the most powerful political official in the Government, whose influence among unelected staff is matched only by the Cabinet Secretary. His supporters believe that other Downing Street aides are more culpable for the looming defeat (or climbdown) over the welfare bill. They point in particular to Claire Reynolds, a former aide to Tony Blair and Gordon Brown (and wife of Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds). As Number 10 political director, she is in charge of communications between Downing Street and backbench MPs and is the person, some say, who should have seen the rebellion coming. One Whitehall source admits: 'When you have so many MPs [Labour currently has 403], inevitably some of them feel they aren't getting enough attention from Number 10 and they aren't being listened to. 'For a lot of them, this rebellion is their way of putting a line in the sand and saying 'You will have to listen to us now'. For some of them, having a go at Morgan is just a way of avoiding having to criticise Keir because they can say he was just badly advised.' Others have identified dysfunction in the Number 10 policy unit, which is jointly run by its director Stuart Ingham, who has urged caution over the benefit cuts, and Liz Lloyd, head of policy delivery and formerly deputy chief of staff to Blair, who is bullish about them. Lloyd is seen as a potential replacement for McSweeney should he be ousted. Another name in the frame is Jonathan Powell, Blair's long-serving chief of staff, who, as the current National Security Adviser, has been credited with Sir Keir's foreign policy wins. Sir Keir may be reluctant, though, to move him from a role where he has quickly become indispensable. The fact that Labour MPs, including some Starmer loyalists, are willing to debate possible replacements for McSweeney is itself an indication of how much pressure he is currently under. 'Keir has shafted people before,' said one ally of the Prime Minister. 'He tends to take a long time to decide to do it, but he can then be absolutely ruthless.' What is striking in conversations with Labour MPs and aides is how often they bring up the name of Rachel Reeves when they are asked about McSweeney's position. Many of them blame her directly for the mess Labour is in over its domestic policies, while others believe she has painted herself into a corner economically. Those on the Left, who want even higher taxes and even higher spending, are hoping to create a domino effect in which all of those they blame for the welfare bill are eventually toppled. One Labour MP says: 'I spoke to a minister yesterday who said Starmer probably has one chance, and his chance to survive this period is to ditch Rachel and McSweeney. And there's one thing, as they said to me, that Keir is good at, which is pivoting, and he now needs to pivot to where the party and the base is.' Left-wingers like to point out that Sir Keir only won his landslide victory because Tory voters stayed at home, and that Labour got more votes and a higher vote share under Corbyn in 2017. Hence, they say, Corbyn had more support from the public than Sir Keir. They regard the current crisis as the inevitable pushback against the 'command and control' style of government favoured by McSweeney. Until now, McSweeney has managed to hold back the swell of dissatisfaction with Number 10, but the dam has finally burst. The same MP says: 'Someone's basically pointed at the emperor's new clothes, and that's the problem for them now, because you can't come back from this. No one's going to come out at this moment and say Keir has to go. But there are people, definitely, who can see that Rachel and Morgan and the operation around Keir has to change.' The Chancellor could even be in more peril than McSweeney. Any significant concessions on benefits will only add to her fiscal black hole, which is currently estimated to stand at between £20-30 billion. With the cost of a benefits U-turn, the abolition of the two-child benefit cap (a policy the Government says it 'will look at'), the reversal on winter fuel payments and a pledge to spend more on defence, Reeves has some major spending commitments to fund. Meanwhile, the Office for Budget Responsibility is expected to revise its UK productivity forecasts before the autumn Budget, potentially cutting the Treasury's bottom line by another £7-8 billion. That might leave her with no choice but to change the Government's fiscal rules on borrowing – which she has said she will not do – or increase income tax, National Insurance or VAT, which she has also previously ruled out. Out of options and out of time, there are some who feel she will leave the Government or be pushed out. The departure of a Chancellor, as history has shown, is often the precursor to the departure of their neighbour in Number 10. Sir Keir's closest supporters, of course, insist the current speculation over his future, and that of Reeves and McSweeney, is overblown and has been whipped up by a relatively small number of backbenchers. A Government source says: 'Everyone in the [Parliamentary Labour Party] owes Morgan and Keir everything and their jobs, and the level of disloyalty from them is terrible. They stood on a manifesto backed by Keir and his team, and they won. 'Welfare reform is popular with the country, we need to start catering to our members and voters.'

What will Keir Starmer learn from the Labour welfare chaos?

Sky News

a day ago

Politics
Sky News

What will Keir Starmer learn from the Labour welfare chaos?

👉 Click here to listen to Electoral Dysfunction on your podcast app 👈 It sounds like concessions are coming for the over 100 Labour MPs who had threatened to rebel over the government's planned welfare cuts. On this episode, Beth Rigby, Ruth Davidson, and Harriet Harman went over the possible options for the Prime Minister. They also talk about what Keir Starmer needs to learn from the chaos of the past few days. Plus, is President Trump the "daddy" in his handling of the Israel-Iran conflict, as NATO head Mark Rutte may have suggested?

BBC News

2 days ago

Politics
BBC News

Newscast Can Keir Starmer Stop A Labour Rebellion?

Today, can Keir Starmer stop a rebellion from his own party over proposed welfare cuts? Adam is joined by Luke Sullivan, Keir Starmer's former political director, to discuss the leadership strategy and the current political challenge. Also, columnist and Sarah Vine speaks to Adam ahead of the release of her new book How Not to Be a Political Wife, sharing how Brexit led to the end of her marriage to Michael Gove and giving a behind the scenes look at life around politics. You can now listen to Newscast on a smart speaker. If you want to listen, just say "Ask BBC Sounds to play Newscast'. It works on most smart speakers. You can join our Newscast online community here: New episodes released every day. If you're in the UK, for more News and Current Affairs podcasts from the BBC, listen on BBC Sounds: Newscast brings you daily analysis of the latest political news stories from the BBC. It was presented by Adam Fleming. It was made by Miranda Slade and Julia Webster and Gabriel May . The technical producer was Mike Regaard. The assistant editor is Chris Gray. The senior news editor is Sam Bonham.

Starmer Swings From Defiance to Deal-Making to Save Welfare Bill

Bloomberg