I will vote against the Welfare Bill - I don’t want anyone to feel the regret I've had since 2015
The government agreed to make two major changes to the welfare bill ahead of a House of Commons vote on Tuesday (Alamy)
3 min read
I remember walking through the voting lobby in 2015 to vote in favour of the Welfare Reform and Work Bill.
Labour MPs at the time had been persuaded to vote for the bill at second reading on the premise we could change it at committee stage.
I had only been an MP for two years and thought sticking with and trusting my party was the right thing to do.
I knew as soon as I had voted that I had made a mistake. I felt sick.
When I returned home to my constituency, the people who had put their faith in me just two years earlier were bitterly disappointed and felt let down by me.
It is my biggest regret in Parliament to date.
I vowed from then onwards I would never put party loyalty before my constituents and the people who elected me to be their voice.
I hated myself, and when the bill wasn’t changed in committee, because let’s face it, they hardly ever do, I voted the bill down at third reading as did all other Labour MPs.
But it was too late then, the damage was done, and none of my constituents were interested in the nuances of second and third reading. All they recalled was that I had voted for these cuts.
The result of that awful bill, the tightening of eligibility criteria for disabled people and people with long-term health conditions, was heartbreaking.
It didn’t make the savings predicted or increase employment levels. Those changes led to: increased poverty levels; suicides; a strain on the NHS and other public services; and, in the long run, higher welfare spending and reduced growth.
On Tuesday, we are being asked to vote for the Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill in its original form because the concessions promised are not written into the Bill yet. We are being asked again to ‘trust’ that the Bill will change in committee.
But even with the promised concessions, we are still being asked to tighten eligibility criteria. A cut in support for those who will need it the most.
I am one of several disabled MPs, and not once did anyone from the Cabinet or No 10 reach out to me. Even worse, it appears they didn’t reach out to the multitude of disabled rights organisations or trade unions in agreeing to those concessions. Why were they not in the room when vital decisions about their lives were made?
These concessions are about party management and saving face.
There is no new bill, there are no new explanatory notes, and there are no impact assessments on the new proposals, and no time for sufficient scrutiny. There has been no formal consultation with disabled people. The majority of employment support won’t be in place until the end of the decade, access to work is in a worse state than ever before, it is unclear what the impact on carers' allowances will be, and it creates a two-tier benefit system where disabled people will be worse off.
This is no way to legislate.
We were elected on a promise that those with the broadest shoulders would contribute the most. Yet here we are, nearly a year into this government, and it is disabled and sick people who will be made to pay the price for 14 years of Tory mismanagement and chaos. This is not what people voted for.
There are always other ways.
The sensible thing would be to scrap the Bill, work with disabled people and organisations, trade unions, and listen to all MPs to produce a new bill.
I don’t want any colleague to feel the regret I have had since 2015.
On Tuesday, I will vote against this bill.
