Keir Starmer faces a crunch vote on welfare spending after cutting planned cuts in disability benefits.
The British Labour Government hopes to limit the uprising from politicians against welfare reform in a key vote in Parliament, days after they tried to win them with concessions.
Almost a year after his party won a landslide election victory, Prime Minister Kiel Starmer faces one of his prime minister’s toughest tests on Tuesday, when he voted for the government’s welfare plan.
Angry at the proposal to change the country’s key disability benefits eligibility criteria and reduce health-related support received by low-income people, signaling that more than 120 labor politicians will vote for the bill last week.
To appease them, Downing Street announced a series of concessions Friday. This included a pledge that current claimants of disability benefits are not affected by the reductions known as individual independent payments (PIPs).
The government has also pledged to begin a review of the PIP, led by Minister Steven Timmes of Disability.
Speaking Friday, senior labor back venture Meghirier, one of the rebels, described the U-turn as a “viable compromise.”
But soon after Tuesday’s vote, dozens of labor politicians appear to be still opposed to the bill, with British media reporting that at least 35 people planning to oppose the government.
The vote is 86 people with disabilities, which came after human rights groups urged politicians on Monday to vote against the Welfare Reform Bill.
Labour MP and critic of the proposal, Rachel Maskell wrote to X on Monday evening, “I don’t have an agency yet in this process.”
“It’s when I heard them,” she added.
The government’s dispute over the welfare reform bill led to another questioning of priorities where the majority of the 165 people work in the House.
“The University of Manchester has made it a great opportunity to learn about it,” said Rob Ford, a political professor at the University of Manchester.
“When governing such a powerful position in the Commons, we cannot consider many examples of prime ministers in postwar politics,” Ford noted.
Friday’s concession was not the only one that the ancestors have made a U-turn in recent weeks. On June 9, his government announced that it would reverse a policy to abolish winter heating benefits for millions of pensioners.
The latest poll shows that Labour is tracking right-wing populist reform Britain, outperforming its rivals in the local elections in May.
