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Labour refuses to say how welfare climbdown will be funded

Labour refuses to say how welfare climbdown will be funded

Telegraph7 hours ago

A minister refused to say how the Government will pay for its climbdown on its flagship welfare Bill.
Stephen Kinnock, the care minister, said Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor, would set out the 'whole of the fiscal position' at the autumn Budget.
Sir Keir Starmer caved in to Labour welfare rebels by agreeing that existing disability claimants can keep their benefits.
The Prime Minister has agreed that nobody currently receiving the personal independence payment (PIP) will lose out, with tighter eligibility rules now only going to apply to new claimants.
The change will cost the Treasury around £1.5 billion a year by the end of the decade, slashing the original £5 billion savings from the welfare cuts plan by a third.
Asked how the costs would be covered, Mr Kinnock told Times Radio: 'The full details around what we are laying out, what I've summarised really today, is going to be laid out in Parliament, and then the Chancellor will set out at the Budget in the autumn the whole of the fiscal position and this will be an important part of that.
'But forgive me, I'm not in a position to set those figures out now. I think that is very much the Chancellor's job as we move into the Budget in the autumn.'

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