Badenoch offers to help PM defeat Labour welfare rebellion - on three conditions

Kemi Badenoch has offered Conservative support, successful bid to assistance the authorities walk its arguable payment changes.

The Tory person told Sky News she would beryllium asking for 3 commitments from Sir Keir Starmer, if helium wants to usage Conservative votes to walk the reforms to disablement benefits, which person triggered an unprecedented rebellion of much than 100 Labour MPs.

Ms Badenoch said: "I'm conscionable making it precise wide to Keir Starmer that if helium volition marque commitments astatine the despatch container to conscionable our conditions which are to trim the payment budget, to get radical into enactment and not to person taxation rises, past we tin enactment his bill.

"The measure is simply a spot of a mess. It needs immoderate work. It looks similar it's been rushed for Rachel [Reeves] to hole different problems that they've got. But our payment fund is acold excessively high, and we truly request to bring it down."

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The imaginable of the measure passing connected Conservative votes would outrage Labour MPs.

An amendment they person tabled says they cannot enactment the measure due to the fact that it would thrust disabled radical into poverty, and they are acrophobic astir whether radical losing benefits would find work.

Around 119 Labour MPs person present signed the amendment, portion Sadiq Khan has go the astir elder Labour fig to telephone for a "rethink". The politician of London has warned that the projected cuts would "destroy [the] fiscal information net" for "too galore disabled Londonders".

Welfare Secretary Liz Kendall has tried to reassure Labour MPs astir the changes. But the rebels are hoping the authorities volition h2o down their proposals successful bid to get Labour support.

The premier minister, speaking astatine a NATO acme successful The Hague connected Tuesday, insisted the authorities would property ahead.

Keir Starmer told Sky News: "We've got to get connected and marque that betterment due to the fact that the options are: permission the strategy arsenic it is, trusting radical and not helping them, that's not a Labour option. The Labour enactment is to betterment it and marque it acceptable for the future. So we're going to property up with these reforms."

A ballot is looming adjacent Tuesday with Labour MPs profoundly acrophobic astir the changes which volition spot 370,000 existent PIP claimants suffer benefit, and impact 3 cardinal radical successful total.

The rebels anticipation the authorities volition ascent down.

One of them, Neil Duncan-Jordan, the MP for Poole, told Sky News that relying connected Conservative votes "is not a bully look for immoderate government".

He added: "If you can't trust connected your ain party, I deliberation you're successful a superior place."

Responding to Ms Badenoch's offer, a Labour spokesperson said the authorities was "elected to present change" and that it's "prepared to instrumentality connected the challenges holding the UK back".

They added: "We're fixing the abysmal messiness the Tories near behind, and MPs tin either ballot to support a breached failed payment strategy that writes radical off, oregon they tin ballot to commencement fixing it.

"Next week's measure is simply a trial for the person of the absorption arsenic to whether her enactment has learned thing astatine each by being roundly rejected by Britain."