Former Labour Cabinet member Andy Burnham condemns disability benefit cuts. Who else does?

Burnham, a former Health Secretary and Chief Secretary to the Treasury who is now Mayor of Greater Manchester, said: “There is a case for reform but the package announced – when you look at the extent to which disability benefits are bearing the burden of the savings – it feels like the wrong choice.

“When I look at what was announced… there will obviously be a group of people who can be more supported to work.

“But I struggle to believe there will be no detrimental impact that further makes the lives of disabled people harder.

“The system does need fundamental reform and we have a large amount of agreement with the government on that, but I don’t think that reform would mitigate the potential impact of these cuts on all disabled people.

“I think it still risks causing some people significant harm.”

[He] continued: “What the Greater Manchester Disabled People’s Panel say to me is already there are many, many disabled people in Greater Manchester in punishing poverty as a result of the system”.

Questioned on the rising call for a wealth tax instead, he replied:

“If you look at how British society, and the world, changed since the 1980s and 1990s, the gap between rich and poor is astronomical now.

“I do have sympathy for what’s being said there. It’s not about an old-fashioned ‘tax the rich until the pips squeeze’.

“We over-tax people’s work and we under-tax people’s wealth. I am not sure the balance is right.

“It is difficult in government. It’s not easy to balance the books and make things work but I do think we need to proceed with real caution on benefits cuts.”

Burnham’s words follow resignations and threats of rebellion from Labour councillors and MPs over their party leadership’s determination to force disabled people into poverty, rather than take a penny from the rich.

And there is an issue of selfishness as well. As one audience member on the BBC’s Question Time suggested, with MPs about to take a pay rise equivalent to what disabled people are losing, it seems they are robbing the most vulnerable people, in order to fill their own pockets.

Rachel Reeves – and others – said the current situation in the benefits system is “unsustainable”.

But how long can she sustain her own position in the face of an avalanche of opposition?

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