Keir Starmer faces humiliating threat to his authority as Labour MPs revolt on flagship benefits cuts with 120 vowing to sink the bill
Keir Starmer was facing a humiliating threat to his authority last night as Labour’s benefits rebellion continued to grow.
Labour MPs brushed aside pressure from Downing Street and threats from party whips to demand that plans to trim £5billion from the welfare budget are dumped before a crunch vote next Tuesday.
Ministers were stunned by the scale of the rebellion, with 108 MPs signing an amendment that would kill off the legislation needed to implement the cuts.
But, despite increasingly frantic lobbying from ministers, the scale of the rebellion continued to build, with sources claiming that another 19 MPs had signed up yesterday.
The scale of the rebellion is more than enough to wipe out Sir Keir’s landslide majority of 156 if MPs follow through and vote against the Government.
The revolt is a direct threat to the authority of Sir Keir and Rachel Reeves, who ordered the package of cuts to help balance the books.
One Labour insider said: ‘The whole thing is a massive f*** you to Keir and Rachel.’
Sir Keir, who is out of the country again at the Nato summit, was last night forced to insist that next week’s showdown over welfare is ‘not a confidence vote’ after some Labour rebels were warned that they risked bringing down the Government.
Keir Starmer was facing a humiliating threat to his authority last night as Labour’s benefits rebellion continued to grow
The revolt is a direct threat to the authority of Sir Keir and Rachel Reeves (pictured), who ordered the package of cuts to help balance the books
Failure to pass the legislation would increase the risk of tax rises to plug the hole in the public finances.
Defeat would also raise questions about whether Labour can ever tame the sickness benefits bill, which is on course to top £100billion a year by the next election if the reforms are dropped.
Downing Street said the PM was ‘committed’ to pressing ahead with the vote next week, saying the reforms are essential to fix the ‘broken’ welfare system.
But officials are already drawing up contingency plans to delay the vote until the autumn if the rebellion holds firm.
Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle is also being pressed not to call the amendment next week, with Labour officials arguing it is a ‘wrecking’ measure.
Kemi Badenoch last night threw a lifeline to Sir Keir, offering Tory support for the legislation, provided he commits to further measures to bring down the bloated benefits bill and get people back to work – and guarantees no further tax rises.
The Tory leader said she was willing to help the PM deal with the ‘open rebellion’ – but warned he would have to sign up to ‘core Conservative principles’ in return.
Labour dismissed the Tory conditions, with a spokesman saying: ‘We’re fixing the abysmal mess the Tories left behind, and MPs can either vote to keep a broken, failed welfare system that writes people off, or they can vote to start fixing it.’
Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle is also being pressed not to call the amendment next week, with Labour officials arguing it is a ‘wrecking’ measure
Kemi Badenoch said she was willing to help the PM deal with the ‘open rebellion’ – but warned he would have to sign up to ‘core Conservative principles’ in return
Labour whips and senior ministers including Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting were last night ringing round to persuade MPs to change their minds.
A party source said: ‘With some, it’s a case of appealing to their party loyalty; with others it’s appealing to their ambition and making the point that anyone serious about wanting to be a minister will have to back the Government on a vote like this.
‘But the scale of it is enormous and there is not much time before the vote.’
At the Nato summit in The Hague, Sir Keir, asked if he was considering concessions, said: ‘We were elected to change that which is broken. Our welfare system is broken. The progressive thing to do is to fix it so it works for working people.’
The welfare rebellion extends far beyond the ‘usual suspects’ on Labour’s hard Left.
Rebels include former Cabinet minister Louise Haigh, former whip Vicky Foxcroft, who quit her government job over the issue last week, and a dozen select committee chairmen.
Downing Street yesterday insisted the Cabinet is united behind the cuts package.
But around a dozen junior ministers and ministerial aides have been placed on resignation watch by the whips.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves during a visit to Horiba Mira in Nuneaton, to mark the launch of the Government’s Industrial Strategy on June 23
Rebels include former Cabinet minister Louise Haigh (pictured), former whip Vicky Foxcroft, who quit her government job over the issue last week, and a dozen select committee chairmen
Dame Meg Hillier, chairman of the Commons Treasury committee and lead signature on the amendment, said: ‘We don’t want to defeat the Government but we want the Government to think again.’
Florence Eshalomi, chairman of the Commons local government committee, said the proposals were ‘damaging for people already struggling to make ends meet’. No 10 said the Government recognised the ‘strength of feeling surrounding the issue’.
The welfare ‘reforms’ were ordered by the Chancellor after sluggish growth and rising borrowing costs blew a hole in the public finances.
The most controversial element involves ending eligibility for Personal Independence Payments for 800,000 disabled people.
The package also involves ‘rebalancing’ universal credit payments to end the ‘perverse’ incentive that makes it attractive for people to claim they are too sick to work.
