Days after describing welfare reform as a ‘moral imperative’, Sir Keir Starmer has all but abandoned it.
A partial U-turn on benefit cuts last week became a total capitulation on Tuesday night, as Labour whips warned Downing Street that backbench MPs were poised to inflict a humiliating Commons defeat on the eve of the Prime Minister’s first anniversary in office.
No 10 believed it had done enough last Thursday when it agreed to exempt all those currently on disability from planned cuts and focus solely on new claimants.
The huge concession would have halved the estimated £5 billion savings, but ministers consoled themselves that at least the principle of reform would be salvaged.
Work and pensions secretary Liz Kendall faced mocking laughter from opposition MPs at 2pm on Tuesday when she insisted there would be no further concessions and declared the government ‘must not and will not duck the big challenges facing this country’.
As the afternoon wore on, and a seemingly endless stream of Labour MPs stood up to denounce the ‘Dickensian’ package of cuts, rumours began to circulate that No 10 was preparing to make further concessions to avoid a humiliating defeat.
Behind the scenes, Angela Rayner and other senior ministers were ringing round rebels trying to change their minds – to no avail.
At 5.30pm, Ms Kendall’s deputy Stephen Timms announced that the government was scrapping the disability benefit cuts at the heart of the legislation pending a review which will be ‘co-produced’ with disability charities and will not report for 18 months.
The climbdown raises serious questions about the PM’s ability to lead his own MPs on anything outside their comfort zone
Social Security Minister Sir Stephen Timms confirmed in the Commons that the remaining changes, due to be introduced in November, would now not come in before a review was completed in the autumn of 2026
Liz Kendall faced mocking laughter from opposition MPs when she insisted there would be no further concessions and declared the government ‘must not and will not duck the big challenges facing this country’
Legislation once designed to save £5 billion will now save nothing at all. In fact, it is likely to end up costing money to fund a £1 billion back to work scheme conceded to rebel MPs.
Mr Timms said that a review of disability benefits, which is all that is left of Labour’s reform programme is ‘not designed to save money’.
Some Labour rebels were so incensed by the shambolic and ‘disrespectful’ handling of the so-called reforms that they declared they would vote to give the PM a bloody nose anyway.
As Tory spokesman Helen Whately observed, the episode suggested the PM ‘can’t even deliver a U-turn’.
The climbdown raises serious questions about the PM’s ability to lead his own MPs on anything outside their comfort zone. He misjudged their mood initially, failed to heed warnings from the whips for weeks and miscalculated concessions designed to head off a revolt.
It also raises Labour’s ability to ever reform a welfare system which the PM – and just about everyone else – believes is ‘broken’, with spending on sickness benefits in line to top £100 billion by the end of the decade.
Sir Keir started the day by congratulating his Cabinet and telling them they could look back on their first year ‘with a real sense of pride and achievement’ after taking a series of ‘tough choices’.
By the end of the day he had abandoned his toughest choice – and raised doubts about whether he will ever be able to push through a genuinely difficult choice again.
