A Labour MP has said he is worried that the government’s widely trailed welfare cuts feel “like a rerun of austerity”.
Neil Duncan-Jordan, the Labour MP for Poole, decried reported plans to cut around £6 billion from the benefits bill — set to include significant cuts to disability support.
Duncan-Jordan said: “Cuts to benefits don’t make jobs — they only make more poverty in our society and that’s why I’m very worried about some of the things I’m reading.”
Speaking to BBC Newsnight, he added: “It feels like a rerun of austerity and I’m worried about that.”
Austerity refers to the economic programme the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government embarked on after 2010. George Osborne, chancellor from 2010 to 2016, oversaw a series of severe spending cuts and tax increases designed to cut back the UK state and reduce the national debt.
Duncan-Jordan, who was also critical of the winter fuel payment cut announced last year, said: “If we’re going to make poor people poorer, then there’ll be a number of MPs who won’t be able to sign up to that.”
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The backbench MP suggested ministers could instead look at raising revenue from wealthy corporations and individuals.
The comments come as unease grows in Labour ranks over the severity of the reported cuts, as chancellor Rachel Reeves seeks to balance the books. Work and pensions secretary Liz Kendall is expected to outline some of the reforms to health and disability benefits in the coming days.
Defending his government’s plans on Monday evening, Keir Starmer said the current welfare system was “discouraging people from working”.
He noted that “one in eight young people” are not in education, employment or training, as he rued a “wasted generation”.
“The people who really need that safety net [are] still not always getting the dignity they deserve”, the prime minister told a meeting of Labour MPs. .
“That’s unsustainable, it’s indefensible and it is unfair, people feel that in their bones. It runs contrary to deep British values that if you can work, you should.”
Josh Self is Editor of Politics.co.uk, follow him on Bluesky here.
Politics.co.uk is the UK’s leading digital-only political website. Subscribe to our daily newsletter for all the latest news and analysis.
Benefits system ‘unsustainable, indefensible and unfair’, Keir Starmer tells Labour MPs
Source: Politics
