‘A wasted generation': Starmer fends off backbench revolt over plan to save $10b a year
London: A backbench revolt is forcing British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer to retreat on welfare reforms that aimed to save at least £5 billion ($10.5 billion) a year but angered recipients of disability payments.
In a flashpoint over his leadership and his ability to prosecute change, Starmer is offering to amend the package to spare an estimated 370,000 recipients from the full force of the changes.
The move aims to shore up support for the welfare reform from more than 100 Labour MPs who have threatened to vote against the package when it is put to parliament on Tuesday.
Days after he joined NATO leaders in promising a big boost in defence spending, Starmer has spent the past 24 hours calling Labour colleagues to prevent open defiance over his concern at the welfare bill.
'We've found ourselves in a worst-of-all-worlds situation, with the wrong incentives, discouraging people from working, the taxpayer funding a spiralling bill,' he said in March, before the full details of the changes were revealed.
'A wasted generation, one in eight young people not in education, employment or training, and the people who really need that safety net still not always getting the dignity they deserve.
'That's unsustainable, it's indefensible and it is unfair, people feel that in their bones.'
In a parallel with the Australian debate over the cost of the National Disability Insurance Scheme, the Labour revolt centres on Starmer's attempt to tighten eligibility for the personal independence payment (PIP) for people with disabilities.
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