“Labour MPs who have been concerned about disciplinary measures … have decided to prioritise the welfare of their constituents”
By Ben Folley
MPs discussion of the Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payments Bill completed on Wednesday night, with a second day of backbench Labour MPs condemning the government’s punitive welfare agenda.
After 49 Labour MPs voted against the second reading, the same total of Labour MPs rejected the third reading, marking the two largest votes of Labour MPs against the Whip since the General Election.
The bill stemmed from proposals the Pathways to Work green paper published in March which included a small but welcome increase to the Universal Credit standard allowance costing the government £1.9bn, but on the basis of cuts worth more than £4.5bn from Personal Independence Payments (by creating a new eligibility threshold), and over £3bn from Universal Credit health payments (by freezing it for current recipients and halving it for future recipients) by the year 2030.
The government left out of the bill the more progressive elements of the green paper which included funding employment support for those on disability benefits, meaning the bill was a largely negative measure delivering far greater cuts to the incomes of disabled people than the small increases.
Immediate condemnation of the green paper measures by disabled people’s organisations and anti-poverty campaigners, compounded when a consultation on the green paper excluded seeking public views on the payment cuts, meant opposition to the measures amongst Labour MPs was there from the start and only grew.
A public letter from 42 Labour MPs was bolstered by reports of 100 MPs signing another unpublished letter.
Disabled people’s groups and anti-poverty campaigners began to address weekly briefing meetings of MPs in the Commons. They organised lobbies of parliament and protests outside. The People’s Assembly also organised a protest in Parliament Square.
That opposition crystallised when the bill was published, when a ‘reasoned amendment’ to ‘decline the second reading’ – the initial discussion of the bill’s principles – by almost 130 Labour MPs, including ten chairs of Commons select committees. The Green Party MPs and Independent Alliance MPs tabled their own amendments.
The scale of the support for the amendment meant the government proposed new concessions to the Bill even before it’s second reading debate.
Before the first day of the Bill’s debate – (known as second reading of the Bill) – the government pledged concessions in the form of amendments to protect the real terms value of current claimants universal credit health payments, committed to allowing a small section of future claimants the rate received by current claimants, and then promised to bring forward some of its employment support spending.
That was enough for some. Meg Hillier withdrew the reasoned amendment. But another was tabled the same day by Rachael Maskell with 42 Labour MPs amongst 66 signatories, including Greens, Independents, Northern Irish MPs and Scottish and Welsh nationalists..
That wasn’t enough. In the second reading debate as Labour MP after Labour MP condemned the government’s punitive PIP thresholds and the poverty it would create, the Minister Stephen Timms made an extraordinary fresh mid-debate concession to postpone those changes until after a review of the PIP assessment process could be completed.
That meant the number of Labour MPs prepared to kill the bill dead, at almost 130 on the amendment, was reduced to 49 on second reading. But the number was significant. Tony Blair had a similar rebellion on lone-parent benefit in his first year but Starmer’s was the largest rebellion by Labour MPs at a second reading of their own party’s bill, since Blair’s introduction of top-up fees in 2004.
And following the delay to the PIP cuts, attention turned on to the £2bn of cuts to future claimants of the universal credit health payments, for those with limited capability to work. These include people unable to use a phone keypad, or walk 50 metres without difficulty. The bill proposed to cut the payment award by £3,000 a year for future claimants applying after 2026.
Different tactics were pursued. Neil Duncan-Jordan tabled an amendment to strike out the clause introducing the lower rate. Richard Burgon tabled an amendment to restore the rate for future claimants to the higher one of current recipients. Both would have been effective. Neither were allowed a vote.
But MPs called a division to reject the clause and 39 Labour MPs voted against the government.
Then the bill as a whole was put to a vote – including the increase to the universal credit standard payment which Labour Whips would keep Labour MPs happy. The PLP brief included a table with the number of constituents who would benefit from the increase. The same brief minimised any reference to the cut to the universal credit health payment.
Yet 49 Labour MPs rejected the third reading of the bill.
The various votes on second reading, in the committee stage and on third reading, as the bill went through the Commons, meant 58 Labour MPs had voted against the government. 21 of those were first elected in 2024.
The result is that Labour MPs who have been concerned about disciplinary measures for breaking the whip – conscious of Labour’s polling, talk of a potential new left party and the threat of Reform, have decided to prioritise the welfare of their constituents who would miss out and face significant attacks on their incomes as a result of votes by their MPs.
MPs of all parties must be supported – whether through organising meetings, lobbies and protests – in standing against austerity measures and for proposals that improve incomes, services and living standards in general for the vast majority of the public who have suffered under years of Conservative government.
- Ben Folley writes for Labour Outlook and is on x/twitter and on bsky.
- If you support Labour Outlook’s work amplifying the voices of left movements and struggles here and internationally, please consider becoming a supporter on Patreon.
Featured image: “No to Child Poverty + hurting the Disabled. No to Welfare Cuts. Tax the Rich” banner at the People’s Assembly Against Austerity march on 7 June 2025. Photo credit: Sam Browse, Labour Outlook.
Do Starmer & Co have absolutely NO COMMON SENSE? We know there’s massive problems to address; they won’t be resolved by creating more problems… like “Oh, we seem to have lost all our MPs and the public hate us…”