A SENIOR Labour MP has revealed she “felt ashamed” of the Government’s chaotic attempt to cut disability benefits.
Work and Pensions committee chair Debbie Abrahams fumed at the Prime Minister when he appeared at the Liaison Committee in Westminster on Monday, as she took him to task over the proposed cuts to Personal Independence Payments (Pip).
Abrahams said that the bill – which was gutted of the most controversial element in last-ditch attempt to see off a bruising rebellion – was “poor legislation” which had been “designed to save money for the Treasury by cutting support to sick and disabled people”.
She added: “It was so far removed from Labour values of fairness and social justice, let alone compassion and common decency. I have to say I felt ashamed.
"What are the values that will underpin the Government in terms of the policymaking going forward, so that we avoid the harms, the potential harms and the real harms that people are going to face, disabled people, vulnerable people are going face?”
Keir Starmer (above) hit back, though conceded that he was “not going to pretend that we got everything right in recent weeks”.
He said: “I think this is a really important Labour value. I think the fact that nearly a million people, young people, out of work, not earning or learning is a huge challenge for our country. None of us should be accepting of a system that operates like that, it is broken, it needs to be mended.
"All the evidence is that if you’re on benefits and out of work at that young age, the likelihood of ever getting into good, well-paid, secure employment goes down, down, down for the rest of your life.
“One in 10 working age people out of work and three million locked out for health-related reasons. It is no wonder that almost everybody says the system is broken and it’s got to be changed and I’m glad that we’ve started the process of change, I’m not going to pretend that we got everything right in recent weeks but we do need to reform the system and we should take that on as a Labour argument, in my view.”
Labour had been planning to restrict access to Pip for new claimants so that only the most sick and disabled people would qualify.
But faced with the prospect of a revolt from Labour MPs, the Government backed down and cut this from the bill, for which Abrahams eventually voted.
It retained a less controversial, but still criticised, policy to halve the health element of Universal Credit for existing claimants and have the top-up frozen for new claimants at the lower level.
Those already receiving the benefit will get a cash-terms boost from an increase to the standard allowance though people under the age of 22 will no longer be eligible.
Elsewhere in the hour and a half grilling from committee chairs, Starmer said that the UK Government would respond “in due course” to the International Court of Justice’s advisory opinion on Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian territories, which called on other states not to facilitate increasing landgrabs from unlawful settlers.
