Labour MPs Remain Nervous About Welfare Cuts Despite No 10 Outreach

Liz Kendall, the DWP secretary, is coming under increasing pressure over benefit reform (Alamy)

Downing Street on Wednesday held meetings with groups of 40 Labour MPs at a time, in pre-booked 45-minute slots, to discuss their concerns over planned cuts to benefits.

PoliticsHome understands discussions were led by No 10 political director Claire Reynolds and every MP in the room who wanted to ask a question was allowed to do so.

Speaking at a meeting of Labour MPs on Monday evening, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the current size of the welfare bill is "unsustainable", "indefensible" and "unfair".

"It runs contrary to those deep British values that if you can work, you should. And if you want to work, the government should support you, not stop you," he told his party.

Despite this and further outreach by No 10, even some loyal party sources believe the government has underestimated the size of a potential rebellion. 

At the meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party on Monday, several Labour MPs raised their concerns over cutting disability benefits. One such MP was Debbie Abrahams, Labour MP for Oldham East and Saddleworth, and chair of the work and pensions Committee, who had privately contacted several MPs over their concerns about the planned cuts last week.

The government is believed to be looking at £6bn in welfare savings by making it harder to apply for Personal Independence Payments (PIP), which gives extra financial assistance for disabled people. At the same time, it is understood the government is considering raising the basic rate of Universal Credit paid to those searching for work.

Some backbench Labour MPs have launched a Get Britain Working group, which has pledged to help the Prime Minister achieve his mission of getting more people into work. The group was said to have included 36 names, including David Pinto-Duschinsky, the Labour MP for Hendon former Treasury aide to Gordon Brown, who is leading the caucus. 

However, not all of 36 MPs whose names were on a published letter were happy to be included. Allison Gardiner, Labour MP for Stoke-on-Trent, posted on X, the website formerly known as Twitter, that her name “shouldn’t have been added to that letter”. 

PoliticsHome understands Gardiner is not alone in being frustrated that their names were added to the letter.

Rachel Maskell, Labour MP for York Central, told PoliticsHome she was waiting to hear the exact detail from the government on benefit cuts, but suggested that the the move was being driven by the Treasury rather than the Department for Work and Pensions.

"We need to be compassionate and understand the distress and concern shared by disabled people who may be worried about the changes,” she said.

"Where are we heading? This feels more like a Treasury decision as opposed to a DWP decision. But ultimately I want to see the detail and see where this is going."

But one veteran Labour MP told PoliticsHome they were “not convinced” there would be a rebellion as too many of the MPs who were elected in July had government jobs or would be too fearful of repercussions. 

YouGov polling exclusively shared with PoliticsHome last week will likely only have added to Labour MP fears about the potential impact of cuts to the welfare state.

The research carried out for the charity Trussell found that over three-quarters of people receiving Universal Credit and disability benefits went without essentials in the last six months, while 43 per cent said they skipped meals to keep up with other costs.

In September, more than 50 Labour MPs failed to vote with the government over its decision to reduce winter fuel payments for pensioners.

Related

"The Tories Can Have Him": Inside Reform's Rupert Lowe Crisis

By Harriet Symonds and Tom Scotson

15 Mar

PoliticsHome Newsletters

PoliticsHome provides the most comprehensive coverage of UK politics anywhere on the web, offering high quality original reporting and analysis: Subscribe