Cliff Notes
- Kemi Badenoch has stated that the Conservatives will support Labour’s controversial welfare reforms if Sir Keir Starmer commits to reducing the welfare budget, facilitating work placements, and avoiding tax increases.
- Over 119 Labour MPs have rebelled against the changes, fearing the alterations to disability benefits will push vulnerable individuals into poverty, while calls for reconsideration have emerged from key figures like Sadiq Khan.
- A parliamentary vote on these reforms is imminent, with Labour MPs expressing concerns about relying on Conservative support to pass the bill amid internal dissent regarding the welfare system’s future.
Kemi Badenoch says Tories will support Sir Keir Starmer’s welfare cuts – on three conditions
Kemi Badenoch has offered Conservative support in order to help the government pass its controversial welfare changes.
The Tory leader has said she would be asking for three commitments from Sir Keir Starmer if he wants to use Conservative votes to pass the reforms to disability benefits, which have triggered an unprecedented rebellion of more than 100 Labour MPs.
Ms Badenoch said: “I’m just making it very clear to Keir Starmer that if he will make commitments at the despatch box to meet our conditions which are to reduce the welfare budget, to get people into work and not to have tax rises, then we can support his bill.
“The bill is a bit of a mess. It needs some work. It looks like it’s been rushed for Rachel [Reeves] to fix other problems that they’ve got. But our welfare budget is far too high, and we really need to bring it down.”
The prospect of the bill passing on Conservative votes would outrage Labour MPs.
An amendment they have tabled says they cannot support the bill because it would drive disabled people into poverty, and they are concerned about whether people losing benefits would find work.
Around 119 Labour MPs have now signed the amendment, while Sadiq Khan has become the most senior Labour figure to call for a “rethink”. The mayor of London has warned that the proposed cuts would “destroy [the] financial safety net” for “too many disabled Londoners”.
Welfare Secretary Liz Kendall has tried to reassure Labour MPs about the changes. But the rebels are hoping the government will water down their proposals in order to get Labour support.
The prime minister, speaking at a NATO summit in The Hague on Tuesday, insisted the government would press ahead.
Keir Starmer told Sky News: “We’ve got to get on and make that reform because the options are: leave the system as it is, trusting people and not helping them, that’s not a Labour option. The Labour option is to reform it and make it fit for the future. So we’re going to press ahead with these reforms.”