Keir Starmer believes his
government
has a “moral imperative” to fix the welfare system.
The problem is that the practical application of this is cutting disability
benefits
from thousands of people.
The
PM
has now had to back down from £5billion of proposed savings in the face of a rebellion from his own MPs who can see the plans pose an existential threat to their chances of reelection.
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Starmer
has also been forced into a screeching U-turn over his policy of cutting the winter fuel payment to pensioners.
He also seems likely at some point to reverse a refusal to abolish the two-child cap on
benefits
payments.
While the
Prime Minister
is still not quite in the same league, the number of policy reversals is beginning to feel reminiscent of the chaotic years of Boris Johnson’s premiership.
When
Labour
came into government it promised stability and a laser focus on “fixing the foundations” of Britain’s economy.
There was a feeling that this lacked the transformative ambition a
Labour
administration should aspire to, but at least if it could be achieved that would be an improvement.
But with the Bank of England warning of a slowdown in the jobs market and inflation continuing to outstrip wage increases for thousands of Scottish workers,
Starmer
is in danger of appearing to fail on the economy front.
There is a growing feeling that chief of staff Morgan McSweeney – a key architect of former leader
Jeremy Corbyn’s
downfall – has been responsible for many of these tactical blunders and has pulled Starmer too far to the right.
Nobody joins the
Labour Party
to cut benefits from disabled people.
The Prime Minister may well believe there is a moral imperative to cut welfare, but many of his
MPs
believe the exact opposite and that protecting spending on the most vulnerable is central to the party’s values.
Starmer
is right that more has to be done to help people off benefits and into work, and that young people especially should not be abandoned to a life on handouts.
Likewise it is the case that while many pensioners desperately need the
winter fuel payment
there are also many others who neither need or particularly want it.
A
Labour government’s
job is to stand up for the most vulnerable and Sir Keir needs to make the case for a society that does this rather than pandering to Reform’s selfish right-wing rhetoric.