All 404 Labour MPs have been called to Downing Street to attend a “welfare roundtable” to discuss expected major benefit cuts.
Number 10’s policy unit is hosting the discussions on Wednesday and Thursday about the “future of the welfare system”.
The prime minister’s team is hoping to win over MPs concerned about sweeping reforms to the benefits system.
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Sky News has seen the slots being offered to Labour’s 404 MPs, which involves three 45-minute sessions on Wednesday and three on Thursday.
Inviting all Labour MPs to Downing Street briefings is an unusual move, however, Number 10 said it is “entirely routine for MPs to come in for briefings”.
Several billion pounds in spending cuts, including from the welfare budget, are expected in the spring statement on 26 March, worrying some Labour backbenchers who are concerned about the impact on some of the most vulnerable members of society.
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For some, the arguments sound very much like those made by the previous Conservative governments as they attempted to crack down on welfare spending.
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Sir Keir Starmer told Labour MPs on Monday night that the current welfare bill was “unsustainable, it’s indefensible and it is unfair”.
“It runs contrary to those deep British values that if you can work, you should. And if you want to work, the government should support you, not stop you,” he added.
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MPs deeply nervous
Many Labour MPs are deeply nervous following the backlash to cuts on pensioners’ winter fuel allowance by the government, announced by Chancellor Rachel Reeves less than a month after winning the election last July.
Her self-imposed borrowing limits have been eaten into by months of economic downturn and geopolitical events since the October budget, with the Treasury understood to believe she must maintain £9.9bn of headroom.
The Treasury is putting forward the proposed cuts to the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) on Wednesday ahead of the forecaster’s financial prediction on the day of Ms Reeves’ spring statement.
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Ministers have been priming MPs and the public for welfare cuts since January, when the chancellor promised to deliver “fundamental reform” of the welfare system, which “includes looking at areas that have been ducked for too long, like the rising cost of health and disability benefits”.
In an interview with Sky News’ political editor Beth Rigby last week on the Electoral Dysfunction podcast the chancellor argued: “We’ve got to reform our welfare system, because at the moment it’s letting down taxpayers because it’s costing too much, letting down our economy because there’s too many people trapped on out of work benefits.
“And it’s letting down the people who are recipients of benefits because they are trapped on benefits rather than actively supported back into work.”
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And on Sunday, Cabinet Office minister Pat McFadden told Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips “we cannot sit back and let this bill grow and write people off in the way that’s happened for many years”, promising reforms are coming “soon”.
