More than 40 Labour MPs say welfare cuts ‘impossible to support’

More than 40 Labour MPs have urged the Prime Minister to pause and reassess planned cuts to disability benefits, saying current proposals are “impossible to support”.

In a letter first reported by The Guardian, some 42 backbenchers said the planned cuts represented “the biggest attack on the welfare state since George Osborne ushered in the years of austerity”.

The cuts, proposed by the Government in a Green Paper in March, would see a tightening of eligibility criteria for the personal independence payment (Pip), the main disability benefit in England.

Restricting Pip would cut benefits for around 800,000 people, while the sickness-related element of universal credit is also set to be cut.

Concern

The group of MPs said the proposals had “caused a huge amount of anxiety and concern among disabled people and their families” and called for them to be delayed until at least the autumn.

They said: “Whilst the Government may have correctly diagnosed the problem of a broken benefits system and a lack of job opportunities for those who are able to work, they have come up with the wrong medicine.

“Cuts don’t create jobs, they just cause more hardship.

“Ministers therefore need to delay any decisions until all the assessments have been published into the impact the cuts will have on employment, health and increased demand for health and social care.”

They added: “Without a change in direction, the Green Paper will be impossible to support.”

Critics

Signatories include several vocal critics of Sir Keir Starmer’s leadership, including Rachael Maskell and Diane Abbott, along with MPs such as Brian Leishman and Emma Lewell who called for a change of direction after last week’s local elections.

Those elections, in which Labour suffered a series of defeats at local polls and lost the Runcorn and Helsby by-election to Reform UK by just six votes, prompted criticism of some policies pursued by Sir Keir.

Former Cabinet minister Louise Haigh said the welfare cuts, along with the loss of winter fuel payments, had been “totemic” for many voters, while other backbenchers and Welsh First Minister Baroness Eluned Morgan have called for a change of plan.

But Downing Street has so far ruled out reinstating the winter fuel payments, saying it would not be “blown off course” after the local elections.