The mask is slipping — and the picture beneath it isn’t pretty.

Labour’s benefit cuts, particularly to Personal Independence Payment (PIP), have caused outrage across the political spectrum.

Ministers claim these are “difficult decisions,” necessary to fix public finances.

But a growing body of evidence, including reporting from the BBC’s Iain Watson, shows that numerous alternatives exist — many from within Labour’s own ranks.

These alternatives aren’t coming from fringe activists or pressure groups — they’re coming from MPs from all wings of the Labour Party. Proposals include:

• Restoring the 50p top tax rate and aligning capital gains with income tax (Neil Duncan-Jordan)

• Wealth taxes worth up to £25 billion (from MPs and unions)

• New windfall taxes on pandemic profiteers

• Doubling taxes on online gambling firms (Gordon Brown)

• Reform of OBR accounting rules that ignore the economic benefits of investment

• A land tax, higher levies on the savings/investments of high earners, and revaluation of council tax

Even Angela Rayner, the Deputy Prime Minister, proposed £3–4 billion in wealth-based tax changes instead of cuts to support for disabled people and pensioners.

She was ignored.

And now, the central justification for these cuts — fiscal responsibility — is falling apart.

As a group of 40 experts in social deprivation have noted in an open letter to the government, the expected savings from PIP cuts are now in doubt, with rising costs expected to fall on overstretched NHS and local services.

This isn’t just morally indefensible — it’s economically incoherent.

Yet Chancellor Rachel Reeves and Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall are doubling down.

This isn’t about necessity.

It’s about priorities.

Cutting support for sick, disabled, and elderly people when alternative, fairer options are on the table isn’t a hard choice — it’s an easy one for those in power, because it targets those least able to fight back.

There is nothing progressive about “balancing the books” on the backs of the poor while shielding the wealthiest from fair taxation.

There is nothing left-wing about rejecting policies that could promote equity, health, and long-term economic growth, simply to satisfy arbitrary fiscal rules created by George Osborne.

Let’s be clear: Labour has choices. It just refuses to make the right ones.