LABOUR MPs have told Andy Burnham they will rebel if he makes "punitive" cuts to reduce the welfare bill.
The Prime Minister is expected to set out his policies on youth unemployment and welfare in the coming days, with reported plans to strip young people of their benefits unless they agree to do training or voluntary work.
In his first major interview as Prime Minister, Burnham told the BBC he did not want to “blame” people for being on benefits but promised to “get really serious” about reducing the welfare bill.
He added that young people had been “quite seriously let down” by a lack of support into work, he indicated he wanted to “increase the conditions required to receive benefits”.
Attempts by former prime minister Keir Starmer to slash welfare spending by £5 billion last year led to a U-turn in the face of a major backbench rebellion.
Burnham kept Pat McFadden on as Work and Pensions Secretary, who may stage a fresh attempt at slashing the welfare bill.
While ministers are awaiting the final recommendations from two government-backed reports into youth unemployment and disability benefits, both have already identified significant shortcomings in the welfare system and called for action.
Left-leaning Labour MPs who led the rebellion have warned Burnham he may face similar pushback.
Rachael Maskell, who led the rebellion against the Government’s benefits plan, told The Telegraph: “This should be a proper discussion about how we do this incredibly well. It shouldn’t be about punitive measures, of course.
“It must be about positive engagement and to recognise that for some young people, this is going to take longer than for other young people. Some people as we know in life just need a hand up and a bit of help, others will need significant input.”
Kim Johnson, the MP for Liverpool Riverside, added: “If the new leadership believes it can revive the failed politics of welfare cuts instead of asking the wealthiest to pay their fair share, it will be repeating not only Keir Starmer’s mistakes but 14 years of Tory austerity.
“If the first instinct of a new leadership is to target disabled people and low-income families rather than challenge the wealth and inequality at the top of society, then nothing has been learnt.”
John McDonnell, a Labour backbencher, added that any welfare reform “must be based upon a strategy of providing positive support to people rather than punitive sanction”.
Burnham, who has promised to be more collaborative with his parliamentary party, said he would not pursue “a kind of crude approach, crude cuts to benefits to get the welfare bill down”.
He also suggested providing mental health support “in work to support people in an opportunity”.
Foreign Office minister Hamish Falconer said he believes Labour MPs will support proposals to reform welfare and reduce spending on it.
Falconer told ITV’s Good Morning Britain that the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP), which is made up of Labour MPs in the House of Commons, understood the need for changes.
The minister said: “I think the Labour, the PLP, the Parliamentary Labour Party, do recognise that there is an issue that they want to see reform of, and I think they’ll support the Prime Minister in his intent that he set out over the weekend.”
