Labour MPs have voted in favour of the government’s welfare cuts after Keir Starmer made an eleventh hour U-turn to avoid an embarrassing Commons defeat.
MPs voted in favour of the government’s bill by 335 votes for, to 260 against – giving Keir Starmer a majority of 75.
They also rejected an amendment to kill off the legislation altogether that had been tabled by Labour backbencher Rachael Maskell, although this was still backed by 149 MPs.
It marks the biggest rebellion of Sir Keir’s premiership to date as 49 Labour MPs voted against the changes.
In a last ditch bid to calm a rebellion, the PM was forced to shelve plans to make major cuts to personal independence payments just 90 minutes before the vote was due to take place.
The concession to rebel backbenchers means eligibility criteria for Pip are pending a review. Under the original proposals, it was planned to cut the health element of universal credit and make it harder for disabled people to claim PIP in an attempt to save £5 billion from the welfare bill.
But in a dramatic intervention in the Commons this afternoon, DWP minister Stephen Timms confirmed the U-turn, saying the findings of his review would be published before any changes to the Pip system were carried out.
Sir Stephen said: “Others across the House during this debate have raised concerns that the changes to Pip are coming ahead of the conclusions of the review of the assessment that I will be leading.
“We’ve heard those concerns and that is why I can announce that we are going to remove the Clause Five from the Bill at committee, that we will move straight to the wider review, sometimes referred to as the Timms Review and only make changes to Pip eligibility activity and descriptors following that review.”
While this diluted the size of the rebellion, the Tories mocked the move, blasting that he was doing an “admirable” job of “defending the farcical”.
One Labour MP told HuffPost UK the situation was “a f***ing farce”.
After the vote, DWP boss Liz Kendall said: “I wish we had got to this point in a different way, and there are absolutely lessons to learn, but I think it’s really important we’ve passed this bill for second reading.
“It puts in place some really important reforms to the welfare system.”
As per the Telegraph, shadow chancellor Mel Stride said: “This farcical climbdown is the most humiliating moment of Labour’s first year in office.
“Their flagship welfare Bill has disintegrated — stripped bare at the last minute in a desperate attempt to avoid both a defeat, and a confidence vote in Keir Starmer.
“This isn’t serious government — it’s chaos. Labour has bottled welfare reform, left a multi-billion pound hole in the nation’s finances, and set the country on course for higher taxes or a debt spiral.
“It doesn’t have to be this way.”
Lib Dem leader Ed Davey said: “This is no way to run a country. The government should scrap this failed bill altogether and work cross-party to actually bring down the welfare bill by getting people into work.”