Rachel Reeves faces benefits U-turn call from constituency Labour Party
Rachel Reeves is facing demands from her constituency branch of the Labour Party to reverse her planned benefits cuts.
The Leeds and West Pudsey Constituency Labour Party (CLP) passed a motion this week to oppose the Chancellor's proposals to bring down the benefits bill.
Ms Reeves is also bracing for a rebellion by more than 100 of her party's own MPs against proposals that would cut the welfare budget by almost £5 billion.
The reforms would mean only the most disabled adults could claim Personal Independence Payments (PIP), while under-22s would no longer be eligible for Universal Credit.
In a motion seen by the PA news agency, the Leeds West and Pudsey CLP said disabled people 'are not responsible for the state of the national finances'.
The group added that those currently claiming disability benefits 'should not be made to pay the price for Tory economic mismanagement'.
The CLP went on to urge Ms Reeves to 'focus on reducing the taper', the rate at which benefits decrease once somebody has found work, rather than on bringing down personal allowances.
It said it would write to both Ms Reeves and Liz Kendall, the Work and Pensions Secretary, in the coming week to articulate its proposed opposition to her cuts.
The CLP argued it was particularly concerned about measures that would involve 'reducing rates, implementing higher thresholds, poor quality assessments, or increased conditionality'.
Ms Reeves first confirmed the welfare cuts in her Spring Statement in March.
Full details will be unveiled in a Bill that is still being drawn up by ministers but is expected to be tabled in the Commons and voted on next month.
In a letter that will be sent to Alan Campbell, the Chief Whip, this week, about 130 MPs have said Sir Keir Starmer and Ms Reeves must change course or risk defeat in the Commons.
The rebels are demanding concessions that include a full impact assessment before any legislation is published, and an extended consultation over the changes to PIP.
Unrest within Government itself
Unrest about the cuts is understood to extend to within the Government itself, with a number of Parliamentary Private Secretaries (PPS), the most junior ministerial rank, said to be wavering on the issue.
Backbenchers have dismissed Ms Reeves's agenda as an example of 'Treasury capture' and claimed it is unfair on people with long-term disabilities whose conditions are unlikely to improve.
Sir Keir, Ms Reeves and Ms Kendall have all defended the 'moral' case for the benefits cuts, which they say are necessary in order to balance the books and help disabled people into work where possible.
Speaking at Work and Pensions Questions last week, Ms Kendall insisted groups representing disabled people would form part of the consultation over the benefit cuts.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Reuters
22 minutes ago
- Reuters
Fast-fashion retailer Shein reports transport emissions up 13.7% in 2024
LONDON, June 13 (Reuters) - Shein's carbon emissions from transporting products climbed 13.7% in 2024, the online fast-fashion retailer's sustainability report showed on Friday, and its 2023 transport emissions were 18% higher than previously reported after a recalculation. Shein uses mainly air freight to send cheap clothes directly from suppliers in China to shoppers around the world, a more carbon-intensive supply chain model compared to traditional apparel retailers that ship more of their products on container vessels.
The Sun
25 minutes ago
- The Sun
Iconic British high street chain DEMOLISHES its HQ after shutting 75 shops & being pulled out of administration
A MAJOR British chain has demolished its headquarters over a year after going into administration. The brand also closed 75 locations and cut 800 jobs as part of the process. 3 3 However, now The Body Shop has been saved from administration and is even said to be making a comeback with shoppers. More than half of the brand's Sussex headquarters have been knocked down by contractors. Earlier this year, plans were submitted to the local council to demolish and replace the building. This came after The Body Shop announced in October 2024 that it was relocating its headquarters. The headquarters for the high street brand is now located in the Plus X Innovation Hub near the University of Brighton. saved from administration in September 2024. According to The Argus, two of sculptures were stolen from the site during the demolition. The outlet reported on the alleged theft after resident Body Shop sculptor Giles Penny spoke out about his artwork going missing. He shared his hope that the remaining art at the site can be revitalised and reused for a tribute to The Body Shop founder Anita Roddick. The Body Shop has deep roots in Brighton and Sussex before expanding globally since its first store opened in Kensington Gardens in 1976. Since then the business has undergone a whirlwind few decades before going into administration last year. The announcement shocked fans of the company, which was reportedbto be worth £207 million in 2023. Now back with a bang, the sustainable beauty brand plans to keep all remaining 113 stores open. The Body Shop even cashed in a healthy £2 million in profit during its first three months with Auréa since being saved from administration. As part of the company's new chapter, they have even released a new range of products. Why are retailers closing stores? RETAILERS have been feeling the squeeze since the pandemic, while shoppers are cutting back on spending due to the soaring cost of living crisis. High energy costs and a move to shopping online after the pandemic are also taking a toll, and many high street shops have struggled to keep going. However, additional costs have added further pain to an already struggling sector. The British Retail Consortium has predicted that the Treasury's hike to employer NICs from April will cost the retail sector £2.3billion. At the same time, the minimum wage will rise to £12.21 an hour from April, and the minimum wage for people aged 18-20 will rise to £10 an hour, an increase of £1.40. The Centre for Retail Research (CRR) has also warned that around 17,350 retail sites are expected to shut down this year. It comes on the back of a tough 2024 when 13,000 shops closed their doors for good, already a 28% increase on the previous year. Professor Joshua Bamfield, director of the CRR said: "The results for 2024 show that although the outcomes for store closures overall were not as poor as in either 2020 or 2022, they are still disconcerting, with worse set to come in 2025." It comes after almost 170,000 retail workers lost their jobs in 2024. End-of-year figures compiled by the Centre for Retail Research showed the number of job losses spiked amid the collapse of major chains such as Homebase and Ted Baker. It said its latest analysis showed that a total of 169,395 retail jobs were lost in the 2024 calendar year to date. This was up 49,990 – an increase of 41.9% – compared with 2023. It is the highest annual reading since more than 200,000 jobs were lost in 2020 in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced retailers to shut their stores during lockdowns. The centre said 38 major retailers went into administration in 2024, including household names such as Lloyds Pharmacy, Homebase, The Body Shop, Carpetright and Ted Baker. Around a third of all retail job losses in 2024, 33% or 55,914 in total, resulted from administrations. Experts have said small high street shops could face a particularly challenging 2025 because of Budget tax and wage changes. Professor Bamfield has warned of a bleak outlook for 2025, predicting that as many as 202,000 jobs could be lost in the sector. "By increasing both the costs of running stores and the costs on each consumer's household it is highly likely that we will see retail job losses eclipse the height of the pandemic in 2020." It recenelty dropped two exciting limited-edition product collections the cosy, warming Tender Tonka, and the zingy, summery Refreshing Passionfruit. The Tender Tonka range includes frangrances and a body cream. Meanwhile, the Refreshing Passionfruit range features shower gel, body yogurt, body scrub, and body mist. For a full breakdown of The Body Shop's new collection, check out our product round-up.
The Sun
25 minutes ago
- The Sun
I quit boring 9-5 job & make £40K a month on TikTok shop working 3 days a week… I didn't even use social media before
LIKE most parents, Jordan Payne was always keen to find ways to bring in a bit of extra cash. But when she decided to start promoting items for TikTok shop, she never expected to make £40,000 in just ONE month. 13 13 13 And she reckons she's made a staggering £150,000 since opening up her profile on the video-based platform in 2020. The mum-of-two barely used any of her own social media when she first began posting on the app, hoping she might make a few extra quid. By December 2023 she was earning thousands a month - and 18 months later she managed to quit her 9-5 job as a technical product manager to focus full-time on her new TikTok career. In an exclusive interview with The Sun, she said: 'When I first realised I'd made £40,000 in a month, it just seemed crazy. 'You can't quite believe that it's even possible. Most people just don't manage that. 'I did it in November last year around Black Friday. I normally bring in around £10,000 a month, but it's taken me years to build up to this.' TikTok Shop is a marketplace on the social media app, selling everything from beauty products to clothes and garden items, often at bargain prices. When Jordan started you had to have 1,000 followers before you could promote items on the shop. You'd then earn a commission on each sale that came from people clicking through a link on the post. To gain followers Jordan posted tips for brides, as she had got married the month before. Now you need just 500 followers to start doing work for TikTok shop. I've made £18k on Vinted - my clever tip means your photos will stand out 13 13 Commission ranges from two per cent up to 25 per cent, depending on the product and the creator's following and previous success. Jordan, who is appearing in Channel 4 's Secrets of TikTok Shop, first considered joining the app to make money in 2020, after a friend who'd been furloughed during lockdown told her how much money they'd been making from it. The Kent-based mum, 33, was initially a little sceptical about if she'd be able to do the same, as she didn't really use social media like Instagram or Facebook, nevermind TikTok. 'At first, it was really awkward making the videos,' she said. 'In the first week, I felt uncomfortable talking to the camera, and I was focusing on that rather than who I though might be watching the content. 'After a bit, you just forget about it. Once I got my first sale, I was like, 'This is all worth it, so worth putting the time and effort in.' 'I do look back at my old videos now and think, 'Wow that's different'. I've just learnt what works and what doesn't.' Jordan's account, jordanpayne25, focuses on family life, as she has two boys aged one and three with husband Lance, 36. It took her a while to find her niche, but now she reviews kids toys, clothing and items for the family home like air fryers and parasols. Booming business 13 13 Once she'd found products that sold well, it took a few years for her to start making around £10,000 per month from TikTok Shop. 'This time last year, it started really booming,' she said. 'It is life-changing. It's enabled me to quit my job, and I had a good, quite highly paid job before. Now I get to be at home with my kids a lot more. "I tend to work three days a week. I spend all day creating content, editing it, looking on TikTok to see what is doing well. 'I do get more time with my kids but I worry they don't realise that when I'm on my phone, I'm working.' Jordan revealed the most important element of a TikTok video is the opening three seconds - called 'the hook' by creators. It's the short time period it takes TikTok users to decide if they want to watch the video or not. 'One I found worked was saying 'I'm buying this for my nan', because it got people intrigued,' she said. 'It worked so well that I repeated it across several videos. It's one of the important things I've learnt over the years.' Jordan always viewed working with TikTok shop as a business venture, and now all of her earnings from the app are paid into a business account. Storage rooms of products 13 13 She pays herself a set salary of £1,048, plus dividends, every month, and resists spending every penny she earns on her ongoing home renovation project. Jordan is one of the top 120 sellers on TikTok in the UK - and as a result, she has to dedicate rooms in her home to storing products. She said: 'I've got content rooms which are just storage because I've so much stuff that I try to keep to promote. 'I've got about eight air fryers in there. Obviously I can't use them, because nobody needs that. 'But I keep them all because the brand sent them to me... it could be that one of them's on sale tomorrow, one's on sale in a few weeks, and I can promote the different ones, because they're all good for different reasons.' While promoting items from the shop is all about getting sales, Jordan does give her honest opinion when she feels an item isn't up to scratch. 'I have given negative reviews as well, which is a bit of a controversial one,' she said. 'Some people do it, some people don't. Mine blew up, which was a bit difficult for me, because it was a Mystery Toy Box, and they are a nice company. 'But I just really didn't think the particular Paw Patrol box was good value for money, so I said that. 'It mainly just had paintings in it and not much variety, and I think a kid receiving that would be disappointed.' 13 13 Jordan is keen to encourage others to replicate her success on the platform. She's helped family and friends set up accounts - including her sister, who promoted products on an account that didn't feature her face. Jordan has also noticed a number of people using the app have told how much they are battling financially with the cost of living crisis. She said: 'I see a lot of people online talking about how they struggle. I saw one lady, who was a nurse, saying that she and her husband were struggling despite both having full time jobs. Jordan's 5 top tips for bossing TikTok Shop Jordan has been encouraging family and friends to start selling things on TikTok Shop. She offers these top tips to budding sellers... 1. Just go for it. I think that's where most people get stuck, they're too scared to even start it. So just give it a try, even if it's faceless, just try. You can always stop doing it. 2. Follow other creators that are doing well in the same kind of products that you're interested in. If you're beauty, follow them. If you're home, follow accounts that do that, because that'll give you lots of ideas. 3. Look at your analytics. We get lots of information, our watch times and all sorts of stuff. Look at which videos have done the best and repeat that if you had a good 'hook' (first three seconds). If you've got a video that's done particularly well, do that exact thing again, on the same product or different ones. 4. Buy the product. Don't always wait for free samples or worry about not spending the money (within reason!) because if you miss the early stages of it being viral, you're probably going to miss out on sales. Someone else will get it. If you get to it too late, it's probably not going to go viral for you, even if it was a trending product. 5. Make sure you are using good lighting. The visual of the video matters. If it's dark or blurry, that video won't get pushed by TikTok. Plus, no one's going to want to watch it. 'Everybody at the moment is looking for a side hustle or a way to just get by with the current cost of living. "TikTok shop is just a great way for people to earn an extra income. 'It doesn't have to be £10,000 a month if you don't want to put time in. "Some people just want a little extra to help out. My sister-in-law makes about £500 a month, which makes a big difference to paying bills and things.' UNTOLD: Secrets of TikTok Shop is now streaming on Channel 4 13 13
