Labour rebels are doubling down on their opposition to Sir Keir Starmer’s benefit cuts despite ministers planning to offer spending on child poverty as a “trade-off” to win their support.
Dozens of Labour MPs are expected to abstain or vote against the £4.8bn welfare cuts, announced in Rachel Reeves’ spring statement, when they come before parliament.
Ministers and party whips held talks with concerned Labour MPs last week, and opposition to the plans is reportedly hardening.
In a bid to minimise the scale of a rebellion, which threatens to be the biggest against Sir Keir’s government yet, the government is planning to publish its long-awaited strategy to tackle child poverty shortly before the crunch vote.
The strategy will contain additional money for poor parents of under-fives, The Observer reported, with work and pensions secretary Liz Kendall believed to be looking at plans to support young children without going as far as scrapping the controversial two-child benefit cap.
But Labour MPs reacted with fury to talk of a “trade-off”, with outspoken backbencher Rachael Maskell telling the paper: “You can’t compromise with a trade-off under which you say you will take more children from poor families out of poverty by placing more disabled people into poverty. That simply cannot be right.
“The government really does need to start listening to MPs, civil society and the population at large because there is really widespread opposition to these policies.”
Another rebel, Neil Duncan-Jordan, said he could not support a compromise or “trade-off”, adding: “There is not a hierarchy of need.
“The whole policy is wrong. It goes without saying that if these benefit cuts go through, I will be toast in this seat.”
Mr Duncan-Jordan is one of nearly 100 Labour MPs who have a majority smaller than the number of disabled people in their constituencies who could see their benefits cut.
Another factor contributing to the scale of the expected rebellion is the fact that MPs will be asked to vote before seeing an assessment of how many people will be encouraged into work by the welfare cuts – the stated aim of the changes.
An assessment by the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) will accompany Ms Reeves’ second Budget as chancellor this autumn.
Sir Keir has defended the benefit cuts, describing the welfare system as it exists as unjustifiable economically and morally.
The PM said last month: “The welfare system as it’s set up, it can’t be defended on economic terms or moral terms.
“Economically, the cost is going through the roof. So if we don’t do anything, the cost of welfare is going to go to £70bn per year. That’s a third of the cost of the NHS.
“That’s more than the Home Office and our prisons combined. So we’re making choices here.”
He said that “most people say to me” that they want more police officers on the beat and a criminal justice system working effectively.
“We’ve set up a system that basically says, ‘if you try the journey from where you are into work and anything goes wrong, you’ll probably end up in a worse position than when you started.’
“And so understandably, many people say, ‘well, I’m a bit scared about making that journey.’ Therefore, we’re baking in too many people not being able to get into work.”
