UK government faces key test in welfare reform bill vote

Keir Starmer faces crunch ballot connected payment spending aft watering down planned cuts to disablement benefits.

The United Kingdom’s Labour authorities hopes to bounds a rebellion implicit payment betterment from its ain politicians successful a cardinal ballot successful Parliament, conscionable days aft attempting to triumph them implicit with concessions.

Almost a twelvemonth aft his enactment won a landslide predetermination victory, Prime Minister Keir Starmer faces 1 of the toughest tests of his premiership connected Tuesday, erstwhile MPs ballot connected his government’s payment plans.

Angered by proposals to alteration the eligibility criteria of the country’s main disablement payment and to trim health-related enactment received by those connected debased incomes, much than 120 Labour politicians signalled past week that they would beryllium voting against the bill.

In a bid to appease them, Downing Street announced a acceptable of concessions connected Friday, including a pledge that existent claimants of the disablement benefit, which is known arsenic the idiosyncratic independency outgo (Pip), would not beryllium affected by the cuts.

The authorities besides promised to motorboat a reappraisal into Pip, led by Disability Minister Stephen Timms.

Speaking connected Friday, elder Labour backbencher Meg Hillier, 1 of the rebels, described the U-turn arsenic a “workable compromise”.

However, soon up of Tuesday’s vote, it appeared that dozens of Labour politicians inactive opposed the bill, with British media reporting that astatine slightest 35 were readying to spell against the government.

The ballot comes aft 86 disablement and quality rights groups issued a associated connection connected Monday urging politicians to ballot against the payment betterment bill.

Rachael Maskell, a Labour MP and professional of the proposal, wrote connected X connected Monday evening that disabled radical “have yet to person bureau successful this process”.

“It is clip their voices were heard,” she added.

People instrumentality portion successful a protestation against disablement payment cuts connected June 30, 2025, successful London, England [Carl Court/Getty Images]

The disputes astir the government’s payment betterment measure person led to questions being asked erstwhile much astir Starmer, who has a moving bulk of 165 successful the House of Commons.

“It’s a nonaccomplishment of enactment for a premier curate with specified a large bulk to not beryllium capable to get their docket through,” said Rob Ford, a authorities prof astatine the University of Manchester.

“I can’t deliberation of galore examples of a premier curate successful post-war authorities suffering specified a large setback erstwhile presiding implicit specified a beardown presumption successful the Commons,” Ford noted.

Friday’s concessions were not the lone clip Starmer had made a U-turn successful caller weeks. On June 9, his authorities announced that it was reversing a argumentation to scrap a wintertime heating payment for millions of pensioners.

The latest polling shows that Labour is trailing the right-wing populist enactment Reform UK, which outperformed its rivals successful section elections successful May.

Source:

Al Jazeera and quality agencies