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Poll of the day: Do you support Keir Starmer's welfare reform plans?
A political storm is brewing over proposed changes to the UK welfare system, as Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer pushes ahead with controversial reforms that would overhaul disability benefit payments.
Under the new plans, access to Personal Independence Payments (PIP) would be tightened in a bid to reduce what ministers say is unsustainable growth in the system, which currently sees the equivalent of a city the size of Leicester added in new claims each year.
Supporters of the reforms, including Starmer himself, argue that the welfare system is 'broken' and needs urgent change to remain sustainable and to better support people who want to return to work.
But critics, including more than 100 Labour MPs and at least a dozen ministers, warn that the changes will disproportionately harm disabled people and the most vulnerable.
Independent readers have warned that the cuts will 'break people,' leave carers 'destitute,' and impose a human cost many feel is being ignored.
The proposed legislation is expected to face a major rebellion when it goes to a vote in Parliament next week.
As the government prepares to make one of the most significant changes to welfare in over a decade, we want to know what you think: should Starmer's welfare reforms go ahead – or do they go too far?
Vote in our poll and share your thoughts in the comments below.
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The Guardian
26 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Angela Rayner says welfare cuts vote will go ahead as Labour rebellion grows
Keir Starmer will push ahead with his plan for a vote on the government's welfare cuts next Tuesday, his deputy said on Wednesday, despite a large and growing rebellion from Labour MPs. Angela Rayner told the Commons the government would not back down on its proposals to cut nearly £5bn from the welfare bill by limiting access to disability payments. With more than 120 Labour MPs now having signed an amendment to put the cuts on hold, ministers are facing a growing possibility of defeat next Tuesday, or of relying on opposition votes to pass the measures. Labour has a majority of 165 MPs in the Commons. But during a session of prime minister's questions during which she was deputising for Starmer, Rayner told MPs the government would not delay or abandon the vote. 'We're investing £1bn into tailored employment support, a right to try to help more people back into work, and ending reassessments for the most severely disabled who will never be able to work,' she said. 'We won't walk away and stand by and abandon millions of people trapped in the failing system left behind by [the shadow chancellor, Mel Stride] and his colleagues.' Pushed by Stride to recommit to a vote on Tuesday, she added: 'I don't know if he listened to what I said … but what I can tell him, and I don't need a script, we will go ahead on Tuesday.' Rayner's message came a day after she and other senior cabinet colleagues mounted a frantic effort to save the bill, calling rebel backbenchers and urging them to vote with the government. Some MPs say they have been threatened with suspension and even de-selection in four years' time if they vote against the bill, while others say party managers have told them they see it as a vote of confidence in the government. Downing Street has denied those claims. The government's lobbying operation had borne little fruit by Wednesday morning, with the number of signatures to the amendment climbing from 108 to 123. They are being led by Meg Hillier, the respected head of the Treasury select committee. The Conservatives appear to have decided not to support the bill. Kemi Badenoch, the Tory leader, set preconditions for supporting it on Tuesday, none of which are likely to be met. Stride told MPs on Wednesday: 'We will help her [Rayner] to get their bill through, if they can commit to actually reducing the welfare bill and getting people off benefits and into work.' He later added: 'The bill will see the number of people on welfare rising for every single year.' Rayner's insistence that the vote would go ahead echoes the message of the prime minister on Tuesday on his way to the Nato summit in The Hague. 'There is a clear moral case, which is: the current system doesn't help those who want to get into work,' he said. 'It traps people. I think it's 1,000 people a day going on to Pip. The additions to Pip each year are the equivalent of a city the size of Leicester. That is not a system that can be left unreformed.'
The Independent
30 minutes ago
- The Independent
What are the government's welfare proposals that have split MPs?
Labour MPs are divided over the government's controversial plans to cut welfare spending, as a growing backbench rebellion threatens to halt the measures. More than 120 Labour MPs have signed a 'reasoned amendment' to the bill which would deliver the measures. If passed, this would effectively stop it in its tracks for the time being. The plans have received fierce backlash from charities and campaign groups since their introduction in March, when Rachel Reeves announced: 'The Labour Party is the party of work. We believe that if you can work, you should work. But if you can't work, you should be properly supported.' Ministers have revealed more details about their plans for welfare spending since this, but of those only two key measures are up for a vote on Tuesday. Entitled the Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill, this legislation comprises changes those two benefits exclusively. Here's what you need to know: Cutting back PIP eligibility Currently claimed by 3.7 million people, PIP is designed to help with extra costs incurred by living with an illness or disability. The plans see the 'daily living' element of the benefit effectively become harder to claim as the eligibility criteria is tightened. Applicants are currently assessed based on how limited their ability is across ten activities, and awarded points between zero and eight for each based on severity. Under current rules, an applicant needs to be scored at least eight points in any combination to be awarded the lowest rate of PIP. Following the changes, they would need this and to have scored four of these points in a single activity. The planned changes would form the bulk of savings from Labour's welfare reforms, at an estimated £4.1 billion. Under these rules, around 1.5 million current claimants would be found ineligible, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) says. However, the spending watchdog also estimates that this number is closer to 800,000 when accounting for a 'behavioural response,' but acknowledges this is a 'highly uncertain judgement'. Changing Universal Credit rates The other key change in the bill sees the rates of Universal Credit rebalanced, with the standard rate rising while the health-related rate is cut back. Labour said it will 'rebalance payment levels' in Universal Credit to 'promote work and address perverse incentives' in the system, beginning in April 2026. The plans would bring in an across-the-board increase to the standard Universal Credit allowance for new and existing claims from April 2026. This will be a boost of £7 a week, to £106. At the same time, the payment rate for the health-related element of Universal Credit will be frozen. Those already receiving it, will still get £105 a week until 2029/30. Meanwhile, new claimants for this element will get just £54 a week – almost half. These claimants will continue to receive the standard Universal Credit allowance alongside this entitlement, and be eligible from the uplift to that as with any other claimant. Around 2.7 million families are forecast to be in receipt of the health element when the changes come into effect, the OBR says, with all of them affected. What issues have the Labour rebels raised? Several issues are listed in the amendment, with the text highlighting the Office for Budget Responsibility's (OBR) stark analysis that the plans would push 250,000 into poverty, including 50,000 children. Another concern listed is that the government's decision not to conduct a formal consultation with disabled people regarding the two crucial reforms the bill entails. The amendment also notes that members are set to vote on the bill months before the OBR is due to publish its crucial employment impact assessment in autumn 2025, which would detail how many people the reforms are expected to help into work. It also raises the concern is that the additional employment support which has been pledged by the government alongside the reforms is not due until the end of the decade, up to four years after these measures come into effect. Alongside these, no assessment has been published on the impact the changes could have on health or care needs. Despite these issues, the amendment's text also acknowledges "the need for the reform of the social security system" and expresses agreement with "the government's principles for providing support to people into work and protecting people who cannot work."
Telegraph
32 minutes ago
- Telegraph
Only feeble, woke Britain could think Trump is a threat to world peace
The People's Republic of China threatens the independence of Taiwan, has increased its Middle East arms sales by 80 per cent in the past decade, and is strategically gobbling up Africa through its Belt and Road Initiative. The United States is a largely reliable ally, and even though its mercurial president has shredded diplomatic protocols and speaks belligerently about neighbouring countries, America remains a checking force on tyrants and terrorists within its sphere of influence. An arrogant empire, perhaps, but a more benign one the world has never seen. So which of the two do you suppose more Britons consider a threat to world peace? According to the latest British Social Attitudes Survey, it's America, which 72 per cent of us think is a source of conflict and chaos across the globe, compared to 69 per cent who say the same of China. As might be expected, this attitude is more common on the Left, with 81 per cent of Labour and 96 per cent of Green voters expressing that view. But even among backers of the Conservative Party, it's a ludicrous 68 per cent. Any sense of proportion is restricted to supporters of Reform, with only 41 per cent of their number going in for this hyperventilating nonsense. Well done, people of Britain. You've made Reform voters the sensible ones. There are a number of factors at work here. The quiet but constant anti-Americanism of the British middle classes, the superstition that all cruelty and misfortune in the world can (and must) be traced to Western transgressions, but above all it's a bad case of Trump Derangement Syndrome. Orange man bad, orange man blow up world. If president Kamala Harris had just bombed Iran's nuclear programme, imposed a ceasefire on Tehran and Jerusalem, then ordered Israel not to retaliate to material breaches, many of those currently hallucinating the brink of World War III would be filling Bluesky with paeans to girlboss peacekeeping. Progressives cannot countenance the thought that Trump might bring hostilities to a close, and so they seethe rather than grudgingly acknowledge his achievement. Cursed be the peacemakers, for they shall inherit the wrath of The Guardian letters page. Trump has shown markedly less enthusiasm for military entanglements than his recent predecessors in office, Republican and Democrat. He evinces little interest in being the world's policeman and many in his administration are fiercely hostile to this concept. If there is anything the Left should be able to agree with Maga on, it's scepticism about US involvement in the world. This has been unfortunate for Ukraine, because Trump truly could not care whether a Russian or Ukrainian flag flies over Kyiv, but he shows no eagerness to expand existing conflicts or spark fresh ones. It is possible to regard Trump as a political abomination, wholly unfit for high office, a walking repudiation of the political philosophy of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher. But if you must also imbue him with every wickedness known to man, there's a chance you've allowed him to break your grip on reason. He's not only living rent-free in your head, you've barricaded him in there.
