Keir Starmer Hit By Major Labour Rebellion As MPs Back His Welfare Bill

Disabled people and their allies gather in Parliament Square for a rally and protest against cuts to welfare benefits.Keir Starmer has suffered a major rebellion by Labour MPs against welfare cuts which are set to push 150,000 people into poverty.In a major blow to the prime minister’s authority, dozens of his own backbenchers voted against the PM’s flagship Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill.However, a last-minute climbdown by the PM on a key plank of the legislation was enough to ensure it passed by 335 votes to 260.A total of 48 Labour MPs voted against the bill, with around 30 abstaining.But the result was completely overshadowed by Starmer’s latest U-turn, which came less than two hours after the Commons vote took place.The government’s initial plan had been to cut the health element of universal credit and make it harder for disabled people to claim personal independence payments (PIP) in a bid to save £5 billion from the welfare bill.More than 120 Labour MPs backed an amendment which would have killed off the changes, forcing the prime minister to announce last week that current recipients of the benefits would not lose out.Despite the climbdown, senior figures including Labour mayors Andy Burnhamand Sadiq Khan said Starmer’s concessions did not go far enough.In a further climbdown as MPs debated the bill this afternoon, disability minister Stephen Timms told MPs announced there will be no changes to PIP rules at all until after he has finished a review of the whole system.Given that disability groups are feeding into the review, it means the most contentious part of the reforms are now unlikely to ahead.Timms told MPs the government had listened to the “concerns” of Labour MPs and that his review would be completed by autumn next year.The climbdown is also a humiliation for work and pensions secretary Liz Kendall, who had earlier told MPs that the changes to PIP would definitely be going ahead.One Labour MP told HuffPost UK the situation was “a fucking farce”.In a further headache for the government, the latest climbdown means the £5 billion of savings the reforms were supposed to raise has almost been completely wiped out.Chancellor Rachel Reeves will now have to find the money to plug that black hole in her budget, as well as the £1.5bn cost of Starmer’s U-turn on winter fuel payments last month.Posting on X, Tory leader Kemi Badenoch said: “This is an utter capitulation. Labour’s welfare bill is now a TOTAL waste of time. It effectively saves £0, helps no one into work, and does NOT control spending. It’s pointless. They should bin it, do their homework, and come back with something serious. Starmer cannot govern.”Related...Keir Starmer In 11th-Hour Welfare Climbdown In Bid To Avoid Commons DefeatDisabled Labour MP Says 'With A Heavy Broken Heart' She Will Vote Against Welfare CutsRebel Labour MP Slams Keir Starmer's 'Dickensian' Welfare Cuts

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