After his lawmakers pushed him into a series of embarrassing U-turns to sharply scale back plans to cut benefits, lawmakers in the House of Commons gave their initial approval to a package of measures Starmer says are vital to securing the future of the welfare system.
A year after winning one of the largest parliamentary majorities in British history, Starmer has seen his personal approval ratings collapse and been forced into several policy reversals by his increasingly rebellious lawmakers.
Starmer came into office last year promising his big parliamentary majority would bring an end to the political chaos that defined much of the Conservative Party’s 14 years in power. But the revolt over the welfare bill underlines the difficulty he has pushing through unpopular changes.
In a further concession to rebels about two hours before the vote, the government said it would not finalise changes in eligibility for a key benefit payment until a review into the welfare system had been completed.
In the end, the government suffered by far the biggest rebellion of Starmer’s premiership, eclipsing the 16 members of parliament who opposed an infrastructure bill earlier this month.
Labour lawmaker Henry Tufnell said by agreeing to the concessions Starmer had shown “he’s willing to take on board these criticisms that people have raised.”
RISING COSTS
Annual spending on incapacity and disability benefits already exceeds the country’s defence budget and is set to top 100 billion pounds ($137 billion) by 2030, according to official forecasts, up from 65 billion pounds now.
The government had initially hoped to save 5 billion pounds ($6.9 billion) a year by 2030 by tightening rules for people to receive disability and sickness benefits.
It was not clear how the additional last-minute change would impact the hoped-for savings in the welfare reform package.
The government has said there would be no permanent increase in borrowing, but has declined to comment on possible tax rises.
John Curtice, Britain’s most respected pollster, said this week that Starmer was the most unpopular elected prime minister in modern British history, and that voters still did not know what he stood for a year after he was elected.
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