‘The rhetoric’s turned people’s stomachs’: MPs demand lessons learned as Kendall unveils welfare reforms

Labour MPs have expressed their dismay at the government’s welfare reform plans, as the government unveiled the “biggest reforms to employment support in a generation”.

The backbench backlash had focused particularly on the suggestion of a real-terms cut to personal independence payments for disabled people – sparking fears that the government would face its largest rebellion in the Commons since taking office as it seemed likely to require a vote. That proposal, however, has been ruled out by the government.

While some MPs are broadly in favour of welfare reform given the rising costs to the Treasury of health-related benefits, many drew a line at cutting benefits for those unable to work – and even some sympathetic to reforms have despaired at the party’s messaging.

Most of the cabinet were out in force for the statement by Liz Kendall, including Ed Miliband, Wes Streeting, Bridget Phillipson, Angela Rayner and Rachel Reeves. One cabinet member said the cabinet was “united” over reducing the welfare bill.

The government has said it will save £5bn from the changes to the welfare system, with Kendall telling the Commons she was “not interested in being tough” and that we have to be “careful how we talk” about people.

In her address, Liz Kendall announced the government would consult on the creation of a new “time-limited unemployment insurance”, merging JSA and ESA benefits, plans to scrap the work capability assessment in 2028 and ruling out means-testing or freezing personal independence payments.

She also said the government would legislate for a “right to try”, allowing people on sickness benefits to try work without having their benefits cut as a result, and grant a permanent above-inflation rise to the standard allowance in Universal Credit “for the first time ever”.

There were cheers from the government benches as Kendall explicitly said there would be no means testing or freezing of personal independence payments.

However, Clive Lewis warned of the “pain and difficulty” the savings would make to his constituents who are “on the brink”. He warned that the impact of the savings would have a greater impact than the Department of Work and Pensions claims and said constituents are “very angry” about the move. “They do not think this is the kind of action a Labour government takes.”

‘Trashing of a fundamental part of Labour’s compassionate brand appeal’

One Labour MP told LabourList that their colleagues were “aghast at the appalling political management of this”.

“There was a perfectly progressive way to drive this reform, but banging it while we’re trying to fix a Budget problem and turning into a macho test of ‘toughness’ has truly turned peoples’ stomachs.

“We’ve turned a perfectly reasonable public policy problem into a trashing of a fundamental part of Labour’s compassionate brand appeal.”

Another told LabourList that there had been “concern all round” and expressed hopes that ministers have listened, but that the party “need to learn from this”.

“We lost the narrative early and the look isn’t a good one,” the MP added.

READ MORE: ‘The public doesn’t think welfare works – but they are more compassionate than sometimes believed’

LabourList has heard that in at least one of Number 10’s meetings with Labour MPs, there were “serious, well informed and deep concerns” from all corners of the Parliamentary Labour Party.

Meanwhile, one critic of Liz Kendall is said to have privately compared her to a “crap council cabinet member who just accepts all the cuts council officers have wanted to make for years, irrespective of whether they meet our ideological position or get us hammered with the public”. One ally called the comments “pathetic, weird and embarrassing for them”, however.

One MP told LabourList: “I think the backlash has been bigger than [ministers] expected. But I also think colleagues have to be realistic in light of fiscal challenges.”

‘We’ve got to give people dignity’

Another MP who spoke to LabourList highlighted the difference between the values of the Conservatives and Labour and stressed that any reform of the welfare system should “give people dignity” and grant support to those who cannot work.

“The Tories presiding over an ever-increasing number of people on out of work benefits was not out of compassion, but because they lacked ambition for people.

“Behind these numbers are real people who miss out on the benefits that a good job brings.

“Our values drive this work. We’ve got to give people dignity. For those that can’t (and will never be able to) work, let’s give them support and stop putting them through unnecessary and stressful tests. For those that with the right support can work, we owe them a different system.”

‘Starmer is pushing through austerity without the mandate to do it’

NEC member Jess Barnard has hit out at the government’s welfare reforms and said that voters, members and trade unionists do not want to see Labour cut support for disabled people.

She said: “We know full well that had this been announced under the Tories, Labour front benchers would be up in arms – rightly so.

“Starmer is pushing through austerity 2.0 without the mandate to do it. It wasn’t in the manifesto and it wasn’t on our candidates’ pledge cards.

“Labour MPs should listen to disability campaigners, and vote in line with their principles against cruel cuts to some of society’s most vulnerable, and call for a long overdue wealth tax.”

‘Labour making the wrong choices’

Meanwhile, trade union leaders have also been critical of the government’s moves on welfare reform, with Unison general secretary Christina McAnea warning: “Hitting those least able to speak up for themselves is never acceptable.

While she said bad decisions by the Tories had left the new Labour government “in a corner financially”, she added that it was “no excuse for ministers to go after the most vulnerable and contemplate freezing personal independence payments”.

Starmer critic and Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said Labour was “making the wrong choices” over welfare reform in an op-ed for The Mirror. “Some of the decisions that have been made, if you closed your eyes, you would not think it was a Labour government making them.”

But Cabinet Office minister Pat McFadden told Times Radio today: “The cabinet is united behind taking on the issue of the growing benefits bill, the fact that we currently have almost three million people on long-term sickness benefits and that’s projected to grow to over four million at a steady state.

“That demand for these benefits is outstripping the disability rates by a factor of double and by the fact that if we don’t do anything about it we’ll be spending 70 billion pounds a year on this by the end of the decade. The current system leaves too many people in a permanent state of dependence on benefits without the opportunity of work.

“We used to have on some of these indices a few thousand applications a month, now it’s a thousand a day going on to personal independence payments for example or who are applying for it.”

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