MP removes name from colleagues’ pro-welfare reform letter amid cuts backlash

A Labour MP has distanced herself from a letter supporting reform of the welfare system she said her name was “erroneously” added to, amid a growing backlash against cuts to health-related benefits.

Stoke-on-Trent South MP Allison Gardner had been one of the 36 MPs whose name was on a joint letter to Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall pushing for “fundamental change to our welfare system to support work” as part of a new backbench Get Britain Working Group.

However, in a post on Facebook, Gardner said that her name “shouldn’t have been added to the letter” and expressed her commitment to “always stand up for those who are disabled, ill and unable to work”.

She said: “When I was asked to sign, I made it clear that the wording and focus would have needed to change to better reflect the needs of those with severe disabilities and chronic illnesses who simply can’t work.

“I felt strongly that the struggles many face with work capability assessments, personal independence payment (PIP) applications, refusals, appeals and tribunals needed to be highlighted, and vocalised this. This was erroneously taken as consent to include my name on the letter.”

Gardner thanked those who had been in touch with her about the letter and apologised for “any confusion or distress this has caused”.

READ MORE: Welfare benefit cuts: ‘What’s the least bad way to find savings?’

It comes amid a growing backlash over rumoured cuts to benefits in a bid to save billions of pounds.

General secretary of the TUC Paul Nowak issued a rare rebuke to Keir Starmer today too, saying cuts to PIP are “not the solution”. He called on the Prime Minister “not [to] make the same mistake” of Tory austerity.

“Pushing disabled people into hardship with cuts to support will only make the current challenges worse – and will not win public support.”

Meanwhile earlier this week, chief executives of a number of disability charities wrote to the Chancellor to warn that cuts to disability benefits would be “devastating”.

In a letter, they said: “Making cuts to disability benefits will not achieve this goal or fix the system. There is little evidence to suggest cutting benefits increases employment outcomes.

“We know the benefits system is broken and needs reform. That there are disabled people out of work who want work given the right support. And for some disabled people work isn’t appropriate. Changes to welfare must start here. Not with cuts.”

READ MORE: ‘Employment Rights Bill must go further to reform disgraceful sick pay system’

Starmer has been meeting with Labour MPs to calm nerves and quash a potential rebellion on welfare cuts, warning that the cost of disability and sickness benefits for people of working age would rise to £70bn annually by 2030 without action.

He is understood to have told MPs at a meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party that such a cost is “unsustainable, indefensible and unfair”.

“It runs contrary to those deep British values that if you can work, you should. And if you want to work, the government should support you, not stop you.

“This needs to be our offer to people up and down the country: if you can work, we will make work pay. If you need help, that safety net will be there for you. But this the Labour Party. We believe in the dignity of work and we believe in the dignity of every worker.”

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