Welsh Secretary asked if she would resign over benefit cuts
The Welsh Secretary has been asked if she will resign if benefit cuts are announced, after she broke the Labour whip a decade ago to vote against similar changes while in opposition.
Plaid Cymru’s Westminster leader Liz Saville Roberts (Dwyfor Meirionnydd) said she had voted alongside Jo Stevens in opposition to Conservative government policy in 2015.
Ms Stevens defied Labour Party directions to abstain on the vote on the Welfare Reform and Work Bill in the aftermath of that year’s general election.
The order by interim leader Harriet Harman lit the touchpaper on the then-Labour leadership contest. It helped propel Jeremy Corbyn, who also voted against the cuts, to the party’s leadership.
‘Despicable’
Ms Saville Roberts said: “Back in 2015, the Secretary of State and I walked through the same voting lobby against what she then described as ‘despicable Tory welfare cuts’, and she dared to break the Labour whip to do so back then.
“Given this evidence of her strong convictions on the issue, how can she justify remaining in a Cabinet intent on implementing Tory-style welfare cuts?”
Earlier this week, Sir Keir Starmer said the Government could not “shrug our shoulders and look away” over reforms being considered for the welfare system. The overall bill is projected to reach £70 billion by 2023.
Changes could be announced by Chancellor Rachel Reeves in the spring statement on March 26.
Charities, including the MS Society, mental health charity Mind and foodbank organisation the Trussell Trust have written to Ms Reeves urging her to “think again” about cuts.
They said analysis by Scope suggested 700,000 disabled households “could be pushed into poverty” without Personal Independence Payments (PIP).
Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall has said there are 2.8 million people not in work due to ill health and one in eight young people not in education, training or employment.
The sickness and disability bill for working-age people has risen by £20 billion since the pandemic.
Ms Kendall has said an upcoming Health and Disability Green Paper will set out plans to support those who can work back into jobs, rather than write them off.
Worst of all worlds
Ms Stevens said: “We have inherited a Tory welfare system that is the worst of all worlds.
“It has got the wrong incentives, it discourages people from working, the people who really need a safety net are still not getting the support that they need, and the taxpayer is funding an ever-spiralling bill.
“It’s unsustainable, it’s indefensible and it’s unfair. Our principles for reform are clear, supporting those who need support, restoring trust and fairness in the system, fixing that broken assessment process and disincentives, and supporting people to start, stay and succeed in work. She should support that as well.”
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Factory seconds, bought cheap from Props-r-us@The Establishment Bazaar,
The Bumbles, hard hearts and tight fists…
This is pillow talk government…our dreams become your nightmare…
While receiving £350 allowance to heat her second home she voted to cut the Winter Fuel Allowance so cutting benefits won’t bother her in the least, a walk in the park for her conscience.
At first, I thought this was un-Labour-like and that it would hurt especially Labour voting areas such as the Valleys. However, health and disability costs are set to rise by £20–40 billion over the next five years. These are insanely high numbers—for example, cancels out the tax hike from last year’s budget! Clearly, COVID and the tory shambles has had a significant impact, and causes need to be addressed, but there must come a time when you can’t let spending get in every area grow beyond the rate of tax receipt income, as harsh as it seems.
And then there’s the elephant in the room – state pension benefits. For starters we need to stop paying them to the 25% of retirees who are millionaires. But if immigration is curtailed so the ratio of workers to the older people their taxes are funding gets even worse we’ll probably need to replace a fixed retirement age with a fitness for work test.
A wealth tax would more than cover the gain to be made from cutting the benefits to the poorest and most vulnerable. Far more ethical too
Joe Stevens is 100% a joke . Watching her in Parliament yesterday she could not answer any question put to her. EVERY reply started with the opposition Conservatives and Plaid refusing to vote for the budget. She wouldn’t elaborate any more just repeating the same reply without any substance. She twisted her answer on benefits cuts launching into something different. This woman since getting her job has completely mislead the Welsh public with her replies. When She started she lied completely on Port Talbot on air even the BBC question her replies but she denied them. Typical of someone with… Read more »
It would be one thing if Labour were going to take these disability cuts and invest them in creating work environments that the disabled could work, but as they’re not this is Conservative and Draconian. I myself claim PIP and to say I’m worried would be an understatement. Labour have taken up the space on the right that the Tories vacated when they decided to go back to advocating far right policies. I haven’t voted for Labour in over twenty years and I have no intention of doing so again. Keir Starmer is a Tory like Tony Blair.