More and more Yorkshire MPs come out against controversial welfare reforms
Labour MPs must realise the welfare system needs reform, Rachel Reeves has said, after more and more Yorkshire MPs have revealed they are unlikely to support the Government’s benefits bill.
Former Transport Secretary Louise Haigh was the most recent high-profile MP to say it is “unlikely” she will be backing the legislation.
The Sheffield Heeley MP told the BBC: “I’m worried about the proposals as they stand, not least the impact assessment that has shown that tens of thousands of children will be pushed into poverty.”
While Middlesbrough and Thornaby East MP Andy McDonald confirmed he would be voting against the proposals as he had received no answers to his questions of how many of his constituents would be affected.
The cuts, proposed by the Government in a Green Paper in March, would see a tightening of eligibility criteria for the personal independence payment (Pip), the main disability benefit in England.
Restricting Pip would cut benefits for around 800,000 people, while the sickness-related element of universal credit is also set to be cut.
Now 42 backbenchers have said the planned cuts are “impossible to support” in a letter to Sir Keir Starmer, and represented “the biggest attack on the welfare state since George Osborne ushered in the years of austerity”.
Asked what her message to concerned Labour MPs was, the Chancellor said: “I don’t think anybody, including Labour MPs and members, think that the current welfare system created by the Conservative Party is working today.
“They know that the system needs reform. We do need to reform how the welfare system works if we’re going to grow our economy.”
Defending the Government’s plans – which are aimed at encouraging more working-age people on benefits back into jobs – she added: “But crucially, if we’re going to lift people out of poverty and give more people the chance to fulfil their potential, the focus has got to be on supporting people into work.
“Of course, if you can’t work the welfare state must always be there for you, and with this Government it will be.
“But there are many people that are trapped on benefits that are desperate to work, that have been cut out of opportunity for too long. That will change under this Government.”
The letter from Labour backbenchers said the Government “correctly diagnosed the problem of a broken benefits system and a lack of job opportunities for those who are able to work”, but described its solution as “the wrong medicine”.