Left-wingers threaten repeat of benefits revolt that undermined Starmer
Daily Telegraph 28/07/26
Labour MPs have threatened to rebel if Andy Burnham makes “punitive” cuts to welfare.
The Prime Minister is planning to strip young people of their benefits unless they agree to do training or voluntary work under proposals to reduce the £333bn welfare bill.
However, backbenchers on the party’s Left have warned Mr Burnham against repeating the “failed politics of welfare cuts” and signalled that they would oppose such a move.
Sir Keir Starmer suffered a revolt by more than 120 of his MPs last year when he sought to tighten the rules around disability benefits to make fewer people eligible.
Kim Johnson, the MP for Liverpool Riverside, and John McDonnell, Jeremy Corbyn’s former shadow chancellor, have warned Pat McFadden, the Work and Pensions Secretary, and Mr Burnham against the sweeping cuts.
Both MPs were among opponents of Sir Keir’s ill-fated attempt to cut the disability benefits budget by £5bn a year last summer.
Ms Johnson told Bloomberg: “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.”
‘Positive support, not punitive sanction’
Mr 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”.
The welfare rebellion in the Commons last July is widely regarded as the moment Sir Keir’s remaining political authority drained away, as he was forced into a “farcical climbdown”.
The then prime minister was regarded as having “bottled” the chance to reform welfare payments. After weeks of backlash, he was forced to water down the proposals by exempting existing disability claimants from cuts and tabling personal independence payment (Pip) changes until after a review by Sir Stephen Timms.
One Labour MP told The Telegraph: “I’m not opposed to taking tough measures on people who are recalcitrant. But the first thing is you’ve got to actually deliver reasonably-paid jobs, and tackle rent levels in areas where the housing market is under stress.
“I don’t think there is an immediate Labour way of doing this. And I am a bit worried about where Andy is taking us at the present time.”
Warning that Mr Burnham risked becoming “continuity Starmer”, the MP added: “We’ve still got McFadden in place.
“I really am looking for a dramatic change of direction in order to tackle this welfare issue. It doesn’t feel as though that’s what we’re going to get.”
Responding to threats of a fresh revolt, Robert Jenrick, Reform’s Treasury spokesman, said: “You can change prime ministers, but you can’t change the Labour Party.
“Hard-pressed families will invariably suffer with higher taxes at the Budget to pay for the spiralling benefits bill.”
Dr Simon Opher, an opponent of Sir Keir’s welfare cuts, warned Mr Burnham and Mr McFadden against the change, saying: “The carrot will work more often than the stick.”
He told The Telegraph: “We must get young people who are out of work or training back into work. I totally agree with this, as I’ve found my patients with mental illness actually get better when they go to work.
“However, any conditionality must be based on them getting decent timely mental health treatment.”
He said: “Currently, mental health services are abysmal and this doesn’t go very well with giving them any chance.”
During his first Downing Street speech, Mr Burnham promised to “bring the welfare bill down” and use the money saved to bolster defence spending.
While the Prime Minister has since insisted he will not make “crude” cuts to disability benefits, Mr McFadden was clear that the benefits bill had to come down.
In an interview with BBC Breakfast, the veteran Cabinet minister was asked whether the Government would think about making benefits conditional on young people engaging with training or volunteering.
Mr McFadden responded: “Yes it is. I think that alongside opportunity should go an expectation to engage with that opportunity.
“We’ll come out with final proposals after Alan Milburn issues his final report for the Government in the autumn. But I think we’ve got an obligation to young people to put the opportunity in place, to make sure that people can get help, to find work or training.
“But alongside that there should be an expectation to engage. That’s a good bargain for young people and it’s a good bargain for the country too.”
Mr McFadden was also asked by Sky News what Mr Burnham had meant by “changing the nature of the support” to toughen up the conditions for receiving sickness benefits.
He responded: “Well that’s the bargain that we want to strike. I think young people do deserve more opportunity, they deserve more chances in life.
“What Andy Burnham’s saying in the quote you just mentioned was if we’re providing opportunity, there should be an expectation to engage with that because that’s in the young person’s interest and in the country’s interest.”
Mr McFadden’s reforms are expected to take inspiration from the Netherlands, where young recipients can be required to join community projects such as litter picking, repairing playgrounds and spending time with the elderly.
On a visit to Rotterdam in the Netherlands last month, the Work and Pensions Secretary said that Britain was writing off too many young people and should “learn from their approach”.
The policy is likely to prove popular with voters, but risks reigniting a civil war in the Labour Party, many of whose MPs equate any attempt to cut benefits with the austerity-era policies of Lord Cameron and George Osborne.
Mr Burnham argued on Tuesday that Sir Tony Blair’s drive to get half of school leavers to attend university had “let down” a generation of young people.
Unveiling his plan to tackle youth unemployment, the Prime Minister said Britain would “value the hard hat every bit as much as the graduation cap” as he sought to tackle soaring unemployment.
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