Share this post:
It’s now certain: Keir Starmer is facing the biggest fight of his leadership —against which it seems his only option of rescue is an impractical offer by Tory leader Kemi Badenoch, to support his cuts in return for harmful concessions that would shame his leadership and probably split his party.
This crisis is over something no Labour leader should ever be doing: cutting disability benefits.
Starmer has painted himself into a corner, arousing a rebellion from his own MPs, who have finally realised that he is betraying the founding ideals of the Labour Party they all claim to represent.
Six books are gone – 44 to go!
Just click on the image, make your donation
and provide your details!
More than 130 MPs, including at least 122 from Labour, have now signed a reasoned amendment opposing the Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill — legislation that would slash up to £5 billion a year from support for sick and disabled people by 2030.
These are not just the usual suspects. They include new MPs from Starmer’s 2024 intake, veterans from across Labour’s factions, and even suspended MPs like John McDonnell and Andrew Gwynne.
The rebellion is now so large it outnumbers sitting Conservative MPs (but would not outnumber the combined total of Tories and Starmer loyalists, which is why Badenoch has made her offer).
One insider told The Independent they were shocked at how many Labour MPs had signed.
But Starmer has doubled down.
He has vowed to “press ahead” with his cuts (let’s not call them ‘reforms’), dismissing the revolt as irrelevant to the future of his government.
The bill is “not a confidence vote,” he says.
But let’s be clear: if he needs the votes of Kemi Badenoch’s hard-right Conservative Party to pass your welfare cuts, he is no longer leading a Labour government in any meaningful sense.
Buy Cruel Britannia in print here. Buy the Cruel Britannia ebook here. Or just click on the image!
The Badenoch betrayal
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch has pounced on Labour’s internal chaos with a chilling offer: she’ll support Starmer’s cuts if he agrees to go even further. Her conditions:
-
Cut the welfare budget further.
-
Get more people off benefits and into work – with no real plan to do so.
-
No new tax rises to pay for public services.
“The government is in a mess, their MPs are in open rebellion,”
she said.
“If Keir Starmer wants our support, he needs to meet three conditions that align with our core Conservative principles.”
Badenoch isn’t offering help. She’s baiting a trap – and Starmer appears willing to walk right into it.
Get my free guide: “10 Political Lies You Were Sold This Decade” — just subscribe to our email list here:
👉 https://voxpoliticalonline.com
Labour’s response: threats and spin.
Instead of listening to his own MPs, Starmer has apparently resorted to threatening deselection and withdrawing the whip from those standing up for disabled constituents.
The BBC is reporting that cabinet ministers are phoning backbenchers, begging them to remove their names from the amendment. So far, only one — Samantha Niblett — has backed down.
The leadership spin is that this is about “fixing a broken system”; that PIP growth is “unsustainable”; and that they are “reforming welfare to help people back to work”. It’s ridiculous nonsense.
What MPs – and the public – are saying
Many MPs are saying they tried to raise their concerns privately for weeks and were ignored.
Now they are taking a stand in public.
Labour’s Helen Hayes said:
“Nobody who has signed this amendment wants to vote against the government. We’re asking them to listen to avoid a conflict.”
Former cabinet minister Andy Burnham, now Mayor of Greater Manchester, backed the rebellion:
“When the PLP delivers its collective wisdom in such numbers, it is invariably right – and it is right on this.”
And public opinion remains supportive of the most vulnerable.
The latest British Social Attitudes survey shows that 45 per cent still support more spending on disability benefits — despite the barrage of anti-welfare narratives in the media.
The cuts – in detail
The Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payments Bill aims to:
-
Strip benefits from 3.2 million families
-
Leave some people £10,000 a year worse off
-
Push 250,000 people — including 50,000 children — into poverty
-
Cut Personal Independence Payment (PIP) from 370,000 current claimants
-
Deny support to people with MS, cancer, arthritis, epilepsy, and other chronic conditions
And all of it with no consultation, no full impact analysis, and no moral case.
This comes at a time when the cost-of-living crisis is continuing to hit disabled people hardest.
Many PIP claimants already face long waits, intrusive assessments, and high rates of wrongful denials — with more than 70 per cent winning their appeals.
This Writer has just heard the Labour representative on the BBC’s Politics Live admitting that the Department for Work and Pensions routinely refuses perfectly valid claims for PIP on the first attempt.
This is understood by those of us who have been through the system as policy; we take it as an attempt to discourage legitimate claimants from pursuing their legitimate claims, with no concern over what this means for their future.
It is to be welcomed that so many persevere and win their appeals in the end, but this is still after hugely damaging delays.
Cutting PIP now – making it impossible for 87 per cent of claimants to win an award – will simply increase poverty, isolation, and mental distress among those least able to bear it.
What comes next?
Parliament is set to vote on the Bill next week. Whether the reasoned amendment is selected by Speaker Lindsay Hoyle remains uncertain, but its support continues to grow — now backed by MPs from the SDLP, DUP, and Independents.
Behind the scenes, The Independent reports that Labour insiders believe there are only two ways forward:
-
Backtrack again – and risk losing Chancellor Rachel Reeves or Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall.
-
Push forward – and risk losing the faith of the party, the movement, and the country.
One Labour source was blunt:
“This ends one of two ways: either we sack him [Starmer] or he sacks her [Reeves].”
Which side are you on?
This isn’t about “sustainability.”
It’s about priorities.
You don’t help people back to work by taking away the support that keeps them alive.
You don’t “reform” a broken system by copying the people who broke it.
And you don’t lead a Labour government by relying on Tory votes to pass cuts your own party rejects.
The truth is simple: if this bill passes, it won’t just cut benefits — it will cut Labour off from the people it was meant to serve.
Six books are gone – 44 to go!
Just click on the image, make your donation
and provide your details!
What you can do
If you haven’t done so already:
Email your MP now — especially if they haven’t signed the amendment: https://www.theyworkforyou.com/
Explain to them that they face a choice between supporting the most vulnerable in society or losing public support altogether.
Post publicly on the social media, asking them where they stand.
Call on them to back the reasoned amendment.
Ask them if they support pushing disabled people further into poverty.
If you’re in a constituency with a newly elected Labour MP, this matters even more.
Many of them have already joined the rebellion.
The rest need to know their voters are watching.
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:
Starmer’s self-made welfare trap: he can’t accept Tory help and he can’t bully his backbenchers
Share this post:
It’s now certain: Keir Starmer is facing the biggest fight of his leadership —against which it seems his only option of rescue is an impractical offer by Tory leader Kemi Badenoch, to support his cuts in return for harmful concessions that would shame his leadership and probably split his party.
This crisis is over something no Labour leader should ever be doing: cutting disability benefits.
Starmer has painted himself into a corner, arousing a rebellion from his own MPs, who have finally realised that he is betraying the founding ideals of the Labour Party they all claim to represent.
Six books are gone – 44 to go!
Just click on the image, make your donation
and provide your details!
More than 130 MPs, including at least 122 from Labour, have now signed a reasoned amendment opposing the Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill — legislation that would slash up to £5 billion a year from support for sick and disabled people by 2030.
These are not just the usual suspects. They include new MPs from Starmer’s 2024 intake, veterans from across Labour’s factions, and even suspended MPs like John McDonnell and Andrew Gwynne.
The rebellion is now so large it outnumbers sitting Conservative MPs (but would not outnumber the combined total of Tories and Starmer loyalists, which is why Badenoch has made her offer).
One insider told The Independent they were shocked at how many Labour MPs had signed.
But Starmer has doubled down.
He has vowed to “press ahead” with his cuts (let’s not call them ‘reforms’), dismissing the revolt as irrelevant to the future of his government.
The bill is “not a confidence vote,” he says.
But let’s be clear: if he needs the votes of Kemi Badenoch’s hard-right Conservative Party to pass your welfare cuts, he is no longer leading a Labour government in any meaningful sense.
Buy Cruel Britannia in print here. Buy the Cruel Britannia ebook here. Or just click on the image!
The Badenoch betrayal
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch has pounced on Labour’s internal chaos with a chilling offer: she’ll support Starmer’s cuts if he agrees to go even further. Her conditions:
Cut the welfare budget further.
Get more people off benefits and into work – with no real plan to do so.
No new tax rises to pay for public services.
she said.
Badenoch isn’t offering help. She’s baiting a trap – and Starmer appears willing to walk right into it.
Get my free guide: “10 Political Lies You Were Sold This Decade” — just subscribe to our email list here:
👉 https://voxpoliticalonline.com
Labour’s response: threats and spin.
Instead of listening to his own MPs, Starmer has apparently resorted to threatening deselection and withdrawing the whip from those standing up for disabled constituents.
The BBC is reporting that cabinet ministers are phoning backbenchers, begging them to remove their names from the amendment. So far, only one — Samantha Niblett — has backed down.
The leadership spin is that this is about “fixing a broken system”; that PIP growth is “unsustainable”; and that they are “reforming welfare to help people back to work”. It’s ridiculous nonsense.
What MPs – and the public – are saying
Many MPs are saying they tried to raise their concerns privately for weeks and were ignored.
Now they are taking a stand in public.
Labour’s Helen Hayes said:
Former cabinet minister Andy Burnham, now Mayor of Greater Manchester, backed the rebellion:
And public opinion remains supportive of the most vulnerable.
The latest British Social Attitudes survey shows that 45 per cent still support more spending on disability benefits — despite the barrage of anti-welfare narratives in the media.
The cuts – in detail
The Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payments Bill aims to:
Strip benefits from 3.2 million families
Leave some people £10,000 a year worse off
Push 250,000 people — including 50,000 children — into poverty
Cut Personal Independence Payment (PIP) from 370,000 current claimants
Deny support to people with MS, cancer, arthritis, epilepsy, and other chronic conditions
And all of it with no consultation, no full impact analysis, and no moral case.
This comes at a time when the cost-of-living crisis is continuing to hit disabled people hardest.
Many PIP claimants already face long waits, intrusive assessments, and high rates of wrongful denials — with more than 70 per cent winning their appeals.
This Writer has just heard the Labour representative on the BBC’s Politics Live admitting that the Department for Work and Pensions routinely refuses perfectly valid claims for PIP on the first attempt.
This is understood by those of us who have been through the system as policy; we take it as an attempt to discourage legitimate claimants from pursuing their legitimate claims, with no concern over what this means for their future.
It is to be welcomed that so many persevere and win their appeals in the end, but this is still after hugely damaging delays.
Cutting PIP now – making it impossible for 87 per cent of claimants to win an award – will simply increase poverty, isolation, and mental distress among those least able to bear it.
What comes next?
Parliament is set to vote on the Bill next week. Whether the reasoned amendment is selected by Speaker Lindsay Hoyle remains uncertain, but its support continues to grow — now backed by MPs from the SDLP, DUP, and Independents.
Behind the scenes, The Independent reports that Labour insiders believe there are only two ways forward:
Backtrack again – and risk losing Chancellor Rachel Reeves or Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall.
Push forward – and risk losing the faith of the party, the movement, and the country.
One Labour source was blunt:
Which side are you on?
This isn’t about “sustainability.”
It’s about priorities.
You don’t help people back to work by taking away the support that keeps them alive.
You don’t “reform” a broken system by copying the people who broke it.
And you don’t lead a Labour government by relying on Tory votes to pass cuts your own party rejects.
The truth is simple: if this bill passes, it won’t just cut benefits — it will cut Labour off from the people it was meant to serve.
Six books are gone – 44 to go!
Just click on the image, make your donation
and provide your details!
What you can do
If you haven’t done so already:
Email your MP now — especially if they haven’t signed the amendment: https://www.theyworkforyou.com/
Explain to them that they face a choice between supporting the most vulnerable in society or losing public support altogether.
Post publicly on the social media, asking them where they stand.
Call on them to back the reasoned amendment.
Ask them if they support pushing disabled people further into poverty.
If you’re in a constituency with a newly elected Labour MP, this matters even more.
Many of them have already joined the rebellion.
The rest need to know their voters are watching.
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:
you might also like
Let’s start the New Year with some hopeful news
More mistakes in the script? Correcting Cameron’s New Year speech
Osborne wants a ‘year of hard truths’. Here’s one: He’s HIDING the truth