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A Labour government whip has resigned over the party’s brutal new disability benefits legislation — and ministers have responded not with integrity or reconsideration, but with a wave of misleading claims, half-truths, and political threats.
Vicky Foxcroft MP resigned as a government whip — a role that requires enforcing party discipline — because she could not in good conscience support the Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill.
She had previously spent no less than four years investigating and developing Labour’s policy for disabled people – meaning her resignation comes from informed opposition to what the government is doing now.
In her resignation letter to the Prime Minister, she wrote:
“I knew I would not be able to do the job that is required of me and whip – or indeed vote – for reforms which include cuts to disabled people’s finances.”
This is not a minor disagreement.
This is an insider, charged with upholding the government line, publicly walking away from it.
Foxcroft’s resignation signals not only a profound moral conflict inside the Labour Party, but also that the claims being made in defence of the Bill cannot withstand scrutiny from within.
Six books are gone – 44 to go!
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Ministers are lying about what this Bill does
Let’s be clear: every statement made by a government representative in response to Foxcroft’s resignation — with the possible exception of Emily Thornberry’s — has been a distortion, omission, or outright falsehood.
A government spokesman claimed the Bill would “ensure those who can work should… and those with the most severe disabilities are protected.”
This is false:
-
The Bill imposes a new threshold for PIP that requires people to score at least four points in a single activity, disqualifying those with multiple, moderate impairments.
-
It slashes the sickness element of Universal Credit for new claimants from ~£97/week to £217/month.
-
It freezes all disability-related benefit uprating until 2030, ensuring a real-terms cut year after year.
Even the government’s own impact assessments say 370,000 existing PIP claimants will lose support, and 430,000 future claimants will be locked out — to save £3.6 billion.
Meanwhile, another assessment predicts that 250,000 people could be pushed into poverty.
So no, the “most vulnerable” are not protected. They’re targeted.
Buy Cruel Britannia in print here. Buy the Cruel Britannia ebook here. Or just click on the image!
Liz Kendall’s framing is deliberately misleading
Liz Kendall, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, tried to defend the legislation by pointing to the rising number of PIP claimants — 3.7 million now, up from 2.05 million in 2019.
But Kendall fails to mention:
-
The rise in long-term illness and disability, including Long Covid
-
The fact that PIP is not means-tested, and is designed to support people whether or not they work
-
That the fraud rate for PIP remains just 0.4 per cent, despite being the government’s original excuse for this Bill
The government is using deliberately misleading statistics to push a narrative that casts disabled people as a growing cost burden, while ignoring the real reasons behind those figures.
Get my free guide: “10 Political Lies You Were Sold This Decade” — just subscribe to our email list here:
👉 https://voxpoliticalonline.com
Backbench rebellion is real — and growing
Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy claimed she was unaware of any large-scale rebellion:
“Vicky Foxcroft is the only frontbencher who’s spoken to me about quitting… a handful of backbench MPs have expressed concerns.”
But that’s not what’s being said inside the Parliamentary Labour Party. According to multiple reports, more than 100 Labour MPs may vote against the Bill.
That’s not a handful.
That’s enough to defeat the government outright.
And ministers are responding with threats.
One Labour MP told the BBC:
“Anyone who breaks the whip won’t be allowed to stand as a Labour MP at the next general election… These threats are just making people more angry.”
The Labour leadership isn’t debating.
It is bullying its own MPs to support a law that even its own impact assessments say will plunge people into poverty.
Emily Thornberry: a lone voice of reason?
Only one government figure has responded with any degree of integrity: Emily Thornberry, who said she would “look at [the Bill] carefully” and make her decision “in an informed way.”
That’s how every MP should approach legislation — especially changes that has already been linked, in their earlier Conservative form, to:
-
100,000+ deaths within six months of being declared “fit for work”
-
At least 590 suicides
-
A UN report accusing the UK of “grave and systematic violations” of disabled people’s rights
This Bill can still be stopped
If the 100+ MPs rumoured to oppose the Bill vote with their conscience, this legislation will fall.
But they won’t do it without public pressure. That’s where we come in.
Contact your MP today — whatever party they represent.
Tell them:
-
The Bill is based on fraud rhetoric that is not supported by the text
-
It will cut life-saving support from hundreds of thousands of disabled people
-
The government’s own impact assessments confirm it will drive people into poverty
-
Previous reforms led to preventable deaths
-
There has been no proper consultation, and the current one closes after the Bill was introduced
You can find your MP and their contact details at www.theyworkforyou.com
Use the facts from Vox Political‘s analysis to show them that this is not reform — it’s harm, dressed as policy.
Six books are gone – 44 to go!
Just click on the image, make your donation
and provide your details!
“You cannot say you did not know.”
This Bill is not an accident.
It is not a mistake.
It is a deliberate resurrection of a failed and deadly welfare regime — one that the Labour Party once vowed to end.
The people driving this policy have been warned.
They have seen the evidence.
And they are pushing ahead anyway.
They cannot say they did not know.
Share this post:
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Join the Vox Political Facebook page.
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And do share with your family and friends – so they don’t miss out!
If you have appreciated this article, don’t forget to share it using the buttons at the bottom of this page. Politics is about everybody – so let’s try to get everybody involved!
Buy Vox Political books so we can continue
fighting for the facts.
Cruel Britannia is available
in either print or eBook format here:
The Livingstone Presumption is available
in either print or eBook format here:
Health Warning: Government! is now available
in either print or eBook format here:
The first collection, Strong Words and Hard Times,
is still available in either print or eBook format here:
Labour whip resigns over disability cuts – and ministers respond with lies
Share this post:
A Labour government whip has resigned over the party’s brutal new disability benefits legislation — and ministers have responded not with integrity or reconsideration, but with a wave of misleading claims, half-truths, and political threats.
Vicky Foxcroft MP resigned as a government whip — a role that requires enforcing party discipline — because she could not in good conscience support the Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill.
She had previously spent no less than four years investigating and developing Labour’s policy for disabled people – meaning her resignation comes from informed opposition to what the government is doing now.
In her resignation letter to the Prime Minister, she wrote:
This is not a minor disagreement.
This is an insider, charged with upholding the government line, publicly walking away from it.
Foxcroft’s resignation signals not only a profound moral conflict inside the Labour Party, but also that the claims being made in defence of the Bill cannot withstand scrutiny from within.
Six books are gone – 44 to go!
Just click on the image, make your donation
and provide your details!
Ministers are lying about what this Bill does
Let’s be clear: every statement made by a government representative in response to Foxcroft’s resignation — with the possible exception of Emily Thornberry’s — has been a distortion, omission, or outright falsehood.
A government spokesman claimed the Bill would “ensure those who can work should… and those with the most severe disabilities are protected.”
This is false:
The Bill imposes a new threshold for PIP that requires people to score at least four points in a single activity, disqualifying those with multiple, moderate impairments.
It slashes the sickness element of Universal Credit for new claimants from ~£97/week to £217/month.
It freezes all disability-related benefit uprating until 2030, ensuring a real-terms cut year after year.
Even the government’s own impact assessments say 370,000 existing PIP claimants will lose support, and 430,000 future claimants will be locked out — to save £3.6 billion.
Meanwhile, another assessment predicts that 250,000 people could be pushed into poverty.
So no, the “most vulnerable” are not protected. They’re targeted.
Buy Cruel Britannia in print here. Buy the Cruel Britannia ebook here. Or just click on the image!
Liz Kendall’s framing is deliberately misleading
Liz Kendall, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, tried to defend the legislation by pointing to the rising number of PIP claimants — 3.7 million now, up from 2.05 million in 2019.
But Kendall fails to mention:
The rise in long-term illness and disability, including Long Covid
The fact that PIP is not means-tested, and is designed to support people whether or not they work
That the fraud rate for PIP remains just 0.4 per cent, despite being the government’s original excuse for this Bill
The government is using deliberately misleading statistics to push a narrative that casts disabled people as a growing cost burden, while ignoring the real reasons behind those figures.
Get my free guide: “10 Political Lies You Were Sold This Decade” — just subscribe to our email list here:
👉 https://voxpoliticalonline.com
Backbench rebellion is real — and growing
Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy claimed she was unaware of any large-scale rebellion:
But that’s not what’s being said inside the Parliamentary Labour Party. According to multiple reports, more than 100 Labour MPs may vote against the Bill.
That’s not a handful.
That’s enough to defeat the government outright.
And ministers are responding with threats.
One Labour MP told the BBC:
The Labour leadership isn’t debating.
It is bullying its own MPs to support a law that even its own impact assessments say will plunge people into poverty.
Emily Thornberry: a lone voice of reason?
Only one government figure has responded with any degree of integrity: Emily Thornberry, who said she would “look at [the Bill] carefully” and make her decision “in an informed way.”
That’s how every MP should approach legislation — especially changes that has already been linked, in their earlier Conservative form, to:
100,000+ deaths within six months of being declared “fit for work”
At least 590 suicides
A UN report accusing the UK of “grave and systematic violations” of disabled people’s rights
This Bill can still be stopped
If the 100+ MPs rumoured to oppose the Bill vote with their conscience, this legislation will fall.
But they won’t do it without public pressure. That’s where we come in.
Contact your MP today — whatever party they represent.
Tell them:
The Bill is based on fraud rhetoric that is not supported by the text
It will cut life-saving support from hundreds of thousands of disabled people
The government’s own impact assessments confirm it will drive people into poverty
Previous reforms led to preventable deaths
There has been no proper consultation, and the current one closes after the Bill was introduced
You can find your MP and their contact details at www.theyworkforyou.com
Use the facts from Vox Political‘s analysis to show them that this is not reform — it’s harm, dressed as policy.
Six books are gone – 44 to go!
Just click on the image, make your donation
and provide your details!
“You cannot say you did not know.”
This Bill is not an accident.
It is not a mistake.
It is a deliberate resurrection of a failed and deadly welfare regime — one that the Labour Party once vowed to end.
The people driving this policy have been warned.
They have seen the evidence.
And they are pushing ahead anyway.
They cannot say they did not know.
Share this post:
Vox Political needs your help!
If you want to support this site
(but don’t want to give your money to advertisers)
you can make a one-off donation here:
Be among the first to know what’s going on! Here are the ways to manage it:
1) Register with us by clicking on ‘Subscribe’ (bottom right of the home page). You can then receive notifications of every new article that is posted here.
2) Follow VP on Twitter @VoxPolitical
3) Like the Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/VoxPolitical/
Join the Vox Political Facebook page.
4) You could even make Vox Political your homepage at http://voxpoliticalonline.com
5) Follow Vox Political writer Mike Sivier on BlueSky
6) Join the MeWe page at https://mewe.com/p-front/voxpolitical
7) Feel free to comment!
And do share with your family and friends – so they don’t miss out!
If you have appreciated this article, don’t forget to share it using the buttons at the bottom of this page. Politics is about everybody – so let’s try to get everybody involved!
Buy Vox Political books so we can continue
fighting for the facts.
Cruel Britannia is available
in either print or eBook format here:
The Livingstone Presumption is available
in either print or eBook format here:
Health Warning: Government! is now available
in either print or eBook format here:
The first collection, Strong Words and Hard Times,
is still available in either print or eBook format here:
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