Starmer’s Government faces backlash over ‘cruel’ £5bn cut to welfare

Sir Keir Starmer and Liz Kendall faced a furious backlash from Labour MPs, unions and charities after announcing plans to cut £5 billion from the welfare bill.

The Prime Minister said it would be “morally bankrupt” not to reform the “fundamentally broken” system.

But the Government was condemned for making “cruel” and “immoral” cuts and seeking to balance the public finances on the backs of some of the poorest people in society.

Work and Pensions Secretary Ms Kendall said the package of reforms unveiled on Tuesday were necessary to fix a social security system which was “failing the very people it is supposed to help”.

But despite a campaign to win over Labour MPs, Ms Kendall faced a series of critical comments from the back benches in the Commons.

Chairwoman of the Commons Work and Pensions Committee Debbie Abrahams said the £5 billion saving is the largest reduction in social security support since 2015.

She said: “I would put that there are alternative, more compassionate ways to balance the books rather than on the back of sick and disabled people.”

Former shadow chancellor John McDonnell, who sits as an independent, warned people could die as a result of the cuts, telling MPs: “The reality is trying to find up to £5 billion worth of cuts by manipulating, by changing, the Pip (personal independence payment) rules, the criteria will result in immense suffering and – we’ve seen it in the past – loss of life.”

Labour MP Clive Lewis questioned whether the Government understood the “pain and difficulty that this will cause millions of people”.

He told Ms Kendall: “As things stand, my constituents, my friends, my family are very angry about this and they do not think this is the kind of action that a Labour government takes.”

Trade unions also reacted with fury, with PCS general secretary Fran Heathcote saying: “Targeting the most vulnerable with benefit cuts to meet arbitrary fiscal rules is an immoral choice at any time, but at a time of rising poverty, long NHS waiting lists and when the cost-of-living crisis continues to bite is abhorrent.”

She said the union, whose members include staff working in Jobcentres, would be “campaigning with allies to oppose these cruel cuts”.

National Education Union chief Daniel Kebede said: “It is hard to conceive of a Labour government treating the most vulnerable members of society any worse.”

Trades Union Congress general secretary Paul Nowak said: “As well as ensuring that those with the most severe disabilities are protected, we urge ministers to reconsider the scale of proposed cuts in disabled people’s incomes.

“Disabled people who are unable to work must not be pushed further into hardship.”

The Disability Benefits Consortium, an umbrella body representing more than 100 charities and organisations, condemned the “cruel cuts”.

The consortium’s policy co-chairman Charles Gillies said: “These immoral and devastating benefits cuts will push more disabled people into poverty, and worsen people’s health.”

Save the Children’s Dan Paskins said: “We fear child poverty levels will rise in families where someone has a disability as a direct result of these reforms.”

The plans unveiled by the Government include reintroducing reassessments for people on incapacity benefits, changing eligibility rules for Pips and consulting on delaying access to the health element of universal credit (UC) until a person is 22.

Sir Keir said: “This Government will always protect the most severely disabled people to live with dignity.

“But we’re not prepared to stand back and do nothing while millions of people – especially young people – who have potential to work and live independent lives, instead become trapped out of work and abandoned by the system.

“It would be morally bankrupt to let their life chances waste away.”

The proposals include a £1 billion increase in employment support measures to help disabled and long-term sick people back into work.

The work capability assessment will be scrapped, with extra financial support for health conditions under UC now done through the Pip assessment.

A new “right to try” work guarantee will be introduced to allow people to enter the workforce without the fear their benefits will be at risk if they are unable to hold down a job and go back on to social security.

Ms Kendall, who was flanked in the Commons by Sir Keir and Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner, told MPs: “We were elected on a mandate for change.

“To end the sticking plaster approach and tackle the root causes of problems in this country that have been ignored for too long.”