Chancellor Rachel Reeves has insisted that rebelling Labour MPs “know the welfare system needs reform” as the federal government faces a rising backlash over deliberate cuts.
Sir Keir Starmer is beneath strain from Labour MPs, with about 40 within the Crimson Wall – the occasion’s conventional heartlands within the north of England – warning the prime minister’s welfare plan is “impossible to support” in its present kind.
Dozens have thrown their assist behind a letter urging the federal government to “delay” the proposals, which they blasted as “the biggest attack on the welfare state” since Tory austerity.
Ms Reeves on Friday reiterated her plans for reform, insisting that no-one, together with Labour MPs and occasion members, “thinks that the current welfare system created by the Conservative Party is working today”.
She mentioned: “They know that the system needs reform. We do need to reform how the welfare system works if we’re going to grow our economy.”
However, the chancellor added, if the federal government goes to raise folks out of poverty “the focus has got to be on supporting people into work”.
“Of course if you can’t work, the welfare state must always be there for you, and with this government it will be,” she mentioned.
The reforms, introduced forward of Ms Reeves’s spring assertion in March, embody cuts to Private Independence Funds (PIP), one of many fundamental varieties of incapacity profit, and a hike within the common credit score normal allowance.
The federal government has claimed that adjustments to welfare will minimize the funds by £4.8bn general.
Individually, Downing Road refused on Friday to disclaim that Ms Reeves has consulted on probably overhauling their winter gas fee coverage.
Labour’s unpopular resolution to means-test the coverage has taken the profit away from hundreds of thousands of pensioners.
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Ministers have confronted strain from their very own backbenchers to rethink the coverage within the wake of final week’s native election outcomes, which noticed Labour lose the Runcorn by-election and management of Doncaster Council to Reform UK.
Requested if the chancellor has mentioned the winter gas fee in personal, the prime minister’s spokesperson mentioned they’d not give a working commentary.
Pushed once more, Quantity 10 mentioned a “range” of discussions happen in authorities – which isn’t a denial.
Nonetheless, it’s value noting that when studies emerged earlier this week that Downing Road was reviewing the coverage, the federal government strongly pushed again on that suggestion.
