Prime Minister defiant on crucial benefits vote
Sir Keir Starmer has hit back at potential rebels in the Labour Party over his plans to cut the benefits bill, insisting "we have got to get the reforms through."MPs will vote in the coming weeks on a package of measures aiming to cut the benefits bill by £5bn by 2030.The Welfare Reform Bill will include proposals to make it harder for disabled people with less severe conditions to claim Personal Independence Payment, or PIP, in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.Speaking to reporters, the prime minister said: "We have got to get the reforms through, and I have been clear about that from start to finish. "The system is not working. It's not working for those that need support, it's not working for taxpayers. "Everybody agrees it needs reform, we have got to reform it and that is what we intend to do."
Last week, ministers sought to reassure nervy Labour MPs by introducing a transition period for those whose benefits are being withdrawn.Dozens of Labour MPs have expressed concerns about the plans to cut Pip payments and the sickness-related element of Universal Credit.Many have said they are prepared to vote against the primary legislation the government needs to pass to make the changes to welfare payments.The welfare package as a whole could push an extra 250,000 people, including 50,000 children, into relative poverty, according to the government's impact assessment.Asked if there could be further concessions, Sir Keir said he was determined to press ahead with the changes:"The principles remain the same, those who can work should work. "Those who need support in to work should have that support in to work which I don't think they are getting at the moment. "Those who are never going to be able to work should be properly supported and protected. And that includes not being reassessed and reassessed. "So they are the principles, we need to do reform and we will be getting on with that reform when the Bill comes."
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Sky News
an hour ago
- Sky News
Can Starmer contain Trump on Iran?
Sky News' Sam Coates and Politico's Anne McElvoy serve up their essential guide to the day in British politics. The prime minister is in Canada at the G7 as conflict escalates in the Middle East. Can Sir Keir Starmer contain any further flare-ups between Donald Trump and other allies and attempt to bring some calm to the region? The prime minister is also set to authorise a national inquiry into grooming gangs, six months after he said people calling for one were "jumping on the bandwagon". It comes after a national inquiry was recommended by Baroness Louise Casey in her 200-page report, which is due to be published today. How will Sir Keir respond to the rapid review?
The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
British women are being jailed under archaic abortion laws. MPs can act to end that this week
You might have seen their faces. Every few months nowadays, another woman appears in a British newspaper charged with a suspected illegal abortion. Often the woman looks pale and gaunt. Sometimes she hides behind sunglasses as she bows her head. The photographs of these women walking into court feel akin to a public shaming, where the stocks are replaced by a breaking news banner, but the judgment remains the same. If this sounds like a punishment from a different time, it's because it is. The law that's largely used to prosecute women for a suspected illegal abortion was written in 1861 – that's before women had the right to vote or own property independently. While the Abortion Act in 1967 gave widespread access to abortion, it was never made fully legal on the statute books. Now that may change. After more than a century and a half, this week could see abortion decriminalised in England and Wales – and for the first time, give tens of millions of women a genuine right to choose. When the crime and policing bill returns to the Commons, a Labour backbencher, Tonia Antoniazzi, will table an amendment to remove women from the criminal law. It would finally get rid of the anachronistic stain on otherwise modern abortion rights: women will no longer face prosecution if they end a pregnancy after 24 weeks or without approval from two doctors. There is some uncertainty. For one, a second amendment is being put forward by Stella Creasy that aims to enshrine access to abortion as a human right, and pro-choice charities fear would disrupt services. Although it has less support, it could also be selected for a vote. But parliamentary debate aside, reform is highly likely to be on the way. Antoniazzi's amendment has already received the backing of more than 130 MPs, according to the Times, and senior government figures expect it to pass with a large majority. The urge for decriminalisation has increased as the risk of arrest has. It is estimated that more than 100 women have been prosecuted for a suspected abortion over the last decade. And the number of court cases and convictions has actually increased in the 21st century. Between 1861 and 2022, only three women in Great Britain were convicted of an illegal abortion. Since December 2022 alone, seven women have been charged. One woman has been jailed. There is no clear reason as to why. When I asked the British Pregnancy Advisory Service – the leading abortion provider – about the spike in prosecutions, it pointed to an 'inherent suspicion of women in certain circumstances', combined with an increased awareness of abortion medicine by medical professionals, who then breach their duty of confidentiality, and police. Earlier this year, the National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC), which sets the strategic direction for policing across the UK, quietly issued guidance on how to search women's homes for abortion drugs as well as seize their phones to inspect menstrual cycle tracker apps. The cases that have already made it to court – and the papers – have been deeply disturbing. Last month, Nicola Packer was acquitted of unlawfully taking abortion pills at home after the legal time limit during the coronavirus lockdown in 2020. Arrested in hospital by uniformed officers while still recovering from surgery for a stillbirth, it took Packer more than four years to clear her name. During her trial, prosecutors picked over her 'alternative' sex life and the size of her nipples. And yet this is also about the women whose names don't make the headlines. Campaigners say women are routinely put under a police investigation that comes to nothing – the majority of them have in fact naturally given birth prematurely or had stillbirths. There have been cases of women denied contact with their children while police investigated a charge that was later dropped. One teenager who had a late miscarriage was arrested in front of her entire street. The small number of women and girls who have had an abortion past the legal cut-off point are often deeply vulnerable, and include victims of trafficking or domestic violence. As BPAS told me: 'We're aware of cases where the woman has been investigated, or even imprisoned, and nothing has happened to her abusive partner.' Where is the public interest in any of this? Pregnancy loss – particularly late term – is still equated with guilt and failure. To lose a pregnancy and then be called in by the police and questioned under caution, let alone taken to court, is less criminal justice and more a kind of state-sponsored humiliation. It does not feel like a coincidence that the rise in prosecutions has come as abortion rights in the UK – from decriminalisation in Northern Ireland to the permanent adoption of telemedicine after lockdown – have made gains. Progress always comes with pushback. The rapid rise of Reform UK shows how, even in the most liberal of societies, the threat to women and minority rights is never truly over. Nigel Farage has already floated tougher restrictions on abortion as well as tax breaks for married couples. We need only look to the global shift to authoritarianism to see the extreme end-point of this. When police searched the car of the man suspected of killing a Democratic lawmaker in Minnesota, US, on Saturday, they allegedly found a list of people with links to abortion rights. Decriminalising abortion will, in the short term, save a handful of women from the trauma of a courtroom, and a hundred or so more from a police cell. That matters. But it will also do something else of value: it will say no woman should be forced to continue a pregnancy against her will, and that abortion is healthcare, not a criminal offence. As we finally edge close to change, it is surely time to shift the stigma – it is not women who should feel shame but the MPs and prosecutors who let this barbarism go on. Frances Ryan is a Guardian columnist
The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
UK house prices fall in toughest sellers' market in 10 years
Property asking prices slipped in June, as sellers faced the toughest competition in a decade to find buyers. The 'unusual dip' in prices – by 0.3% to £378,420 – compares with an average increase of 0.4% in June over the past 10 years, according to the property portal Rightmove. Buyer demand is now 3% higher compared with last year, Rightmove found, while the number of homes coming to market is 11% ahead. Such a wide variety of choice means the market is highly price sensitive, the company said. The government ended temporary stamp duty cuts in England and Northern Ireland in April, adding thousands of pounds to the costs of many transactions this tax year. Colleen Babcock, a property expert at Rightmove, said: 'It appears that we're now seeing the decade-high level of homes for sale, and the recent stamp duty increases in England, have a delayed impact on new sellers' pricing. 'Agents have been telling us that sellers need to set a competitive price to have a better chance of finding a buyer in the current market, and it looks like many are listening and responding to that message.' Asking prices fell most rapidly in the south-west, south-east and London in June, down 1.6%, 1% and 0.9% respectively, Rightmove found, highlighting that buyers in these regions were disproportionately affected by recent changes to stamp duty and that some sellers may be reducing their prices to account for this. The largest increases in available homes for sale compared with last year were also in the south-west, the south-east and London, Rightmove said. While buyer demand is rising, separate research from the estate agent Hamptons suggests demand in the rental market weakened in May. There were 17% fewer tenants registering in lettings branches in May compared with the same time last year, it found. So far this year there have been 1.5 times as many tenants registering to find somewhere to rent compared with each first-time buyer. That is almost half the level when mortgage rates peaked in 2022 and 2023, which priced many potential buyers out of the market. Sign up to Business Today Get set for the working day – we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morning after newsletter promotion Aneisha Beveridge of Hamptons said: 'Landlords rolling off short-term fixed-rate mortgages are now seeing their monthly payments fall, reducing the need to pass on further costs to tenants. 'At the same time, lower mortgage rates are changing the arithmetic for tenants who are thinking about buying. While rates remain high relative to pre-Covid times, three years of above-inflation rental growth mean that for most, buying remains cheaper than renting. This has boosted first-time buyer numbers and reduced demand in the rental sector. 'It has taken the best part of two years for the pace of rental growth to fall from double digits down to 1.5%. This means that rents are now rising at a rate that's close to their long-term average, and suggests that the era of rapid rental growth is behind us for now.' However, she noted that rental growth was unlikely to fall back much further. 'Landlords are increasingly getting their heads around what the renters' rights bill will mean for them, but the way it plays out for landlords in reality will shape future investor appetite,' she said. The bill, which is not yet finalised, is expected to pass into law this summer. It is designed to give tenants greater protection, including the abolition of section 21 evictions and strengthening renters' rights to request a pet in the property.
