Angela Rayner says welfare cuts vote will go ahead as Labour rebellion grows
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.'
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