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.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
BBC News
20 minutes ago
- BBC News
What are the government's planned welfare changes?
A significant number of Labour MPs are threatening to vote against the government's working-age welfare reform plan when it comes before the House of Commons next reforms are designed to reduce the overall working-age welfare bill by about £5bn a year by the end of the rebel MPs have signed an amendment to the legislation that makes a series of objections, including a lack of official consultation and impact Verify explains the detail of the reforms and their possible impact. Which benefits would be cut? The government wants to save money by:making it harder for people to access Personal Independence Payments (Pip)cutting the rate of incapacity benefitIncapacity benefit - which is mainly paid through the health element of Universal Credit - goes to those deemed to be unable to work for health benefit is set to be reduced by 50% in cash terms for new claimants from April 2026. For existing claimants, it is due to be held flat in cash terms until 2029-30 - meaning payments will not rise in line with inflation. The government estimates these two changes will save £3bn a year by the end of the is paid to people with a long-term physical or mental health condition or a disability and who need support. Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall has acknowledged that almost 20% of recipients are in work. The government plans to make it more difficult for people to claim the "daily living" element of Pip from 2026-27. Under the current assessment system, claimants are scored on a zero to 12 scale by a health professional on everyday tasks such as washing, getting dressed and preparing are the Pip and universal credit changes and who is affected?Under the proposed change, people would need to score at least four on one task, ruling out people with lower scores who would previously have qualified for the benefit. The government estimates this will save an additional £4.5bn a year from the welfare bill by the end of the decade. Why is the government trying to cut welfare spending? It is concerned about the rise in the number of people claiming working-age benefits in recent years and the implications of this trend for the public Autumn, the government projected that the numbers of working-age claimants of Pip in England, Scotland and Wales would rise from 2.7 million in 2023-24 to 4.3 million in 2029-30, an increase of 1.6 that time, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), the government's official forecaster, projected that the overall cost of the working-age benefit system would rise from £48.5bn in 2024 to £75.7bn by would have represented an increase from 1.7% of the size of the UK economy to 2.2%, roughly the size of current spending on defence. Ministers argue that this rising bill needs to be brought under control and that changes to the welfare system are part of that is worth noting though that - even after factoring in the planned cuts - the OBR still projected this bill to continue to rise in cash terms to £72.3bn by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) still projected the total number of working-age Pip recipients to rise by 1.2 million between 2023-24 and 2029-30 - after the cuts. In this sense, the main effect of the Pip cuts would be to reduce the increase in claimants that would otherwise have occurred. What would the impact of the reforms be? The government's official impact assessment estimates that about 250,000 additional people (including 50,000 children) will be left in "relative poverty" (after housing costs) by 2030 because of the that assessment included the impact of the government deciding not to proceed with welfare reforms planned by the previous Conservative administration, which government analysts had judged would have pushed an additional 150,000 people into charities and research organisations have suggested this means the government's 250,000 estimate understates the impact of its own reforms, since the previous administration's reforms were never actually Porter from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation has suggested the actual poverty impact of the government's changes could therefore be up to 400,000 (adding the 250,000 figure to the 150,000 figure to generate an estimate of the total numbers affected).However, the government's impact assessment cautions against simply adding the two figures together, noting that "some people are affected by more than one [reform] measure", meaning this approach risks double counting account of this, the Resolution Foundation think tank has estimated that the net effect of the government's reforms would mean "at least 300,000" people entering relative poverty by 2030. What about the impact on employment? The government has claimed that its reforms are not just about saving money, but helping people into Rachel Reeves told Sky News in March 2025 that: "I am absolutely certain that our reforms, instead of pushing people into poverty, are going to get people into work. And we know that if you move from welfare into work, you are much less likely to be in poverty."To this end, the government is gradually increasing the standard allowance in Universal Credit - the basic sum paid to cover recipients' living costs - by £5 a week by is projected to be a net benefit to 3.8 million households and the government argues it will also increase the incentives for people to work rather than claim incapacity government is also investing an extra £1bn a year by 2029-30 in additional support to get people out of inactivity and into employment. What are the rebels' objections? The rebel MPs say disabled people have not been consulted on the proposed also say there has been no evaluation of the overall employment impacts by the is true that the government has not consulted disabled people on the specific cuts to Pip and incapacity benefits, though it is now consulting on the broader reform is also the case that the OBR has not yet done a full employment impact assessment, though the forecaster says it will do one before the Autumn the Resolution Foundation has done its own estimate of the employment impact of the overall reform estimates the total increase in employment could be between 60,000 and 105,000, although it stressed that these figures are highly positive employment figure contrasts with the 800,000 people who are projected to lose part of their Pip payments by 2029-30 and the 3 million people families who will see a cut in their incapacity benefits. What do you want BBC Verify to investigate?
ITV News
23 minutes ago
- ITV News
Pip and universal credit cuts explained: Who will be hit and how much will they lose?
Since the government's planned welfare cuts were first announced in March, concern among disabled people, charities, and backbench MPs has continued to grow. The outcry in response to the reforms has plagued Sir Keir Starmer and his ministers as they seek to win over Labour MPs on the changes. Despite more than 120 Labour MPs backing a move to block the legislation, the government insists it is pressing ahead with the reforms. But what are the changes, how many will be affected, and why are MPs so angry about it? What is Pip and who will lose out under the cuts? Personal Independence Payment (Pip) is paid to support people with a long term physical or mental health condition or disability. It's not connected to whether or not you can work, and is designed to cover the additional costs associated with being disabled or long-term sick. There are current 3.7 million people claiming Pip, and under the government's changes it's estimated the cuts will affect around 800,000 people. There are two parts to Pip - the daily living component, and the mobility component. The mobility component is not affected by the changes, but the government is making it more difficult for people to claim the daily living component by tightening eligibility. People are assessed for Pip through questions about their ability to do different daily tasks independently, with each task scaled on a scale from zero to twelve. They currently need to score eight points across the different categories for the standard rate, or twelve for the higher rate. But under the new plans, from November 2026 claimants will need to score at least four points for one activity, rather than a lower number of points across multiple activities. For example, an individual who needs help washing their hair or their body below the waist would score two points and therefore no longer qualify, but needing help washing between the shoulders and waist is worth four points, meaning that would make someone eligible. People claiming the daily living component receive either a standard rate of £72.65 a week, or an enhanced rate of £108.55 a week, depending on the severity of their condition. The Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill also says that there will be a 13 week transition period for anyone losing their Pip, instead of the standard four weeks. What are the changes to universal credit and how many will be hit? Universal credit (UC) is a monthly benefit paid to those who need extra support with living and housing costs. Single claimants over 25 get £400.14 a month on the basic rate, but people with a limited capacity to work, because of a disability or long term sickness, get an additional top-up of £416.19. Under the government's reforms, the UC health top-up for new claimants will be cut in half from £97 a week to £50 a week in 2026-7, and will then be frozen until 2030. Existing claimants will also have the incapacity top-up frozen until 2030. While the top-up is being cut for new claimants, the basic rate of universal credit will rise from around £92 a week to £106 a week by 2030. How many people will be hit? The government's own estimates say 3.2 families will be financially impacted by the cuts, with an average loss of £1,720 a year. But they have repeatedly pointed out those estimates don't take into account the number of people who will be helped into work from an extra £1 billion pot of funding announced as part of the package. The government anticipate 370,000 current Pip claimants will no longer qualify, and 430,000 future recipients will get less than they would under the current plans. The figures also say 2.25 million current UC claimants will lose an average of £500 from the freeze on UC health, although they point out those individuals will see an increase from the rise in the basic rate. 730,000 future recipients of UC health will lose an average of £3,000 a year. The government's impact assessment also confirmed that some 250,000 more people, including 50,000 children, are likely to fall into relative poverty after housing costs in 2029/2030. How much will the cuts save? The welfare bill has ballooned in recent years, with the government spending £65 billion a year on health and disability benefits. Before the government's reforms, the bill was set to rise to £100 billion by 2030. The cost of the Pip bill alone was due to almost double to £34 billion by 2030. The total package is expected to save the government £5 billion a year by 2030. One in 10 working age people now claim sickness or disability benefit, and 1 million young people are not in education, work or training. Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall has previously said there are 1,000 new Pip awards every day – 'the equivalent of adding a city the size of Leicester every single year'. How many MPs are opposing the plans? For months Labour MPs have been voicing anger at the plans both publicly and privately, but this week over 120 have signed a reasoned amendment to the bill which could threaten to derail the plans. There are also 11 MPs from other parties backing the amendment. If all opposition parties vote against the bill, only 83 Labour MPs need to join them for it to be defeated. If the Conservatives decide to support the reforms, that could give the government a way out - but they have insisted on near-impossible conditions in return for their support. Kemi Badenoch said the Tories would lend the government votes to pass the legislation but only if Labour rules out tax rises in the autumn budget as well as reducing unemployment and lowering the welfare budget. Rumours swirled in Westminster on Wednesday that the government might pull the bill, but the prime minister insisted MPs will vote on the reforms next week as planned, dismissing the rebellion as "noises off". Asked if he has "failed to read the mood" among Labour MPs, Starmer said: "There's a pretty united front that say we need reform... the question is how is that reform is carried out." "I'm comfortable with reading the room and delivering the change the country needs," he told journalists at a press conference at the Nato summit in The Hague.
ITV News
23 minutes ago
- ITV News
Hundreds of trans activists descend on Parliament to oppose 'bathroom ban'
Hundreds of trans activists and their allies have descended on Parliament for a mass lobby of MPs, in a bid to have what they call a "bathroom ban" blocked before it can become law. They are furious about plans for legislation, proposed by the (Equality and Human Rights Commission), which would say trans people can only use gendered facilities which correspond to their biologic sex at birth. The EHRC began reconsidering guidance for single sex facilities after a landmark ruling in the Supreme Court which decided the term "woman", as referred to in the Equality Act 2010, is defined by a person's biologic sex. Labour had said it would refrain from issuing guidance about which facilities trans people should use until the EHRC had completed its consultation, which will close next week. But interim guidance issued by the commission said "trans women (biological men) should not be permitted to use the women's facilities". Prime Minister Keir Starmer, in response to the Supreme Court ruling, appeared to have changed his mind about trans people. In 2022 he'd said "transwomen are women" but when asked if he still believed that after the ruling, his spokesperson said: "No, the Supreme Court judgment has made clear that when looking at the Equality Act, a woman is a biological woman." Some women's activists including JK Rowling said the ruling was vindication for their campaign to protect single sex spaces but rather than settle the long running debate, it appears to have just marked the start of another chapter in the story. Trans activists, who've met dozens of MPs in Parliament, are desperate to convince politicians to block any new guidance introduced to parliament after the consultation closes. Jude Guaitamacchi, founder of the Trans+ Solidarity Alliance, said the bathroom ban - if it goes ahead - "will have a devastating impact" on trans people. They added: 'The EHRC's proposals would force workers in shops and pubs to become 'gender police' - told to demand birth certificates from anybody that they think doesn't fit gender stereotypes - and require major facilities changes at great expense for businesses across the country." 'Politicians must act to prevent trans people like me from becoming second class citizens and this is our chance to call for meaningful action to resolve the current human rights crisis. There is no dignity and respect in a bathroom ban, we now need real political leadership.' A former legal director at the EHRC said the commission's draft guidance is a "cynical attempt to undermine the will of Parliament and remove trans people's rights". Grey Collier added: "In practical terms it would be entirely unenforceable which makes it bad law. Most importantly, its impact will be absolutely devastating on the participation of trans and non binary people in all aspects of public life." Among those attending protest were singer Kate Nash and several MPs including former Green Party leader Sian Berry as well as Labour's Olivia Blake. "These proposals would be devastating to trans lives, and it's time for all of us to stand up in the UK and across the world against anti-trans hate and division. Transphobia is not feminism. Trans inclusive feminism is the only path forward & we mustn't let these fringe views become the mainstream," Nash said. "Trans people need protection, rights and healthcare from the UK government. Trans people are not a threat, but are people living their lives like you and me." The exact number of attendees outside Parliament is not yet clear but 1,400 signed up online and over 100 MPs had agreed to meet constituents. Trans+ Solidarity Alliance said the event was expected to be the largest mass lobby on LGBT+ rights since the 1980s. A mass lobby is where activists, all campaigning on the same issue, organise meetings with their local MP in Parliament to impress upon them a strength of feeling around the country, aimed at getting them onside. MPs who spoke to ITV News about the rally said they were hopeful the prime minister would listen, but it is unlikely Starmer would choose to ignore advice issued by the EHRC. A government Spokesperson said: 'We have always supported the protection of single-sex spaces based on biological sex.'This ruling brings clarity for women and service providers such as hospitals, refuges, and sports clubs.'Single-sex spaces are protected in law and will always be protected by this government.'
