Keir Starmer is frantically trying to limit a Labour revolt on welfare today with hours to go until a showdown vote.
Dozens of MPs are vowing to defy the PM in the Commons this evening despite him already having humiliatingly weakened the package of benefits curbs.
Although the scale of the rebellion is now far smaller than the 120-plus who originally signed a fatal amendment, it is still on track to be the biggest of Sir Keir’s premiership so far.
MPs lined up in the Commons this afternoon to condemn the ‘Dickensian’ proposals, even though the costs of disability and health benefits will keep spiking even if they are passed.
Cabinet sources told MailOnline they expected the result would be ‘tight’ – even though no government has lost a piece of legislation at second reading stage since 1986.
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch accused ministers of being ‘driven not by principle but by panic’, joking that Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall ‘looks as if she is being tortured’
Sir Keir gathered Cabinet to take stock of the grim situation this morning, telling his top team the reforms are ‘designed to help those who can work into employment and ensure dignity and security for those who can’t work’.
A truce that had been painstakingly thrashed out last week dramatically disintegrated yesterday amid claims that Sir Keir had reneged on the terms.
Ministers had agreed that no current Personal Independence Payment (Pip) or Universal Credit health element claimant would be worse off from the changes.
That reduced the planned savings from £5billion to £2.5billion by the end of the decade – taking a wrecking ball to Rachel Reeves’ hopes of balancing the books without more tax rises.
Keir Starmer is frantically trying to limit a Labour revolt on welfare today with hours to go until a showdown vote
Protests against the welfare reforms in London yesterday
One rebel ringleader, Debbie Abrahams, said a promised review of the system had not been honoured by the government.
The Work and Pensions Committee chair told the House there was ‘clear confusion’ on the review and whether it would be ‘co-produced with disabled people and their organisations’.
Referring to the proposed requirement for new Pip claimants to score at least four points on at least one daily living activity, Ms Abrahams said: ‘And therein lies the problem – most of us are aware that the dog’s breakfast of this Bill is being driven by the need to get four points to the OBR (Office for Budget Responsibility) to enable it to be scored for the budget.’
Ms Kendall said welfare reform ‘is never easy, perhaps especially for Labour governments’.
The Work and Pensions Secretary told the Commons: ‘Reviewing the assessment as a whole, let me just say, it is a major undertaking that will take time to get right, especially if we co-produce it properly.
‘It will be for those involved in the review to determine the precise (timetable), but we are absolutely committed to moving quickly and completing the review by next autumn.
‘And I want to assure the House, any changes following the Timms review will be implemented as soon as is practicably possible via primary or secondary legislation.
‘And once we have implemented changes from the review, any existing Pip (personal independence payment) claimant can ask for re-assessment.
‘Welfare reform, let’s be honest, is never easy, perhaps especially for Labour governments. Our social security system directly touches the lives of millions of people and it is something we all care deeply about.
‘We have listened to the concerns that have been raised to help us get these changes right. The Bill protects people already claiming Pip, it protects in real terms the incomes of people already receiving the UC (universal credit) health top-up from that benefit and their standard allowance, and it protects those with severe lifelong conditions who will never work, and those near the end of their life as we promised we would.’
DWP estimates that the latest proposals would still push 150,000 extra people into poverty by 2030 angered many, even though it was lower than the 250,000 envisaged in the original plans.
The Tories have confirmed they will vote against the Bill, despite supporting a welfare spending crackdown.
That opens the door to Sir Keir’s massive majority of 166 being overturned – although most believe the government will scrape through.
Some 39 Labour MPs have signed a new fatal amendment overnight, with more than 80 needing to switch sides in theory to inflict a defeat.
The Speaker has selected the amendment, meaning that it will go to a vote at 7pm.
Rachel Maskell has warned ‘many more’ MPs have told her they still plan to oppose the Government’s plans.
Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall has been trying to quell Labour unrest on benefits
She said she had no fear in voting down the Bill and felt a ‘moral duty’ to ‘speak up for’ disabled people.
‘Yes, I support getting disabled people into work where they’ve been discriminated and dismissed, of course that’s important, but when those people can’t work or need longer to prepare for work, it is vital we don’t remove their lifeline,’ she said.
‘Or else they’ll disappear further and further into the margins.’
But Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds told Sky News: ‘I’d ask (colleagues) to support the Government on that basis, because clearly what we’ve got here is something which is better than the existing system.
Asked whether MPs would lose the whip for voting against the Government, he said he was ‘not aware of anything like that’ but ‘those issues are for the chief whip’.
