Paul Nowak has said the government must not make the same mistakes as the Tories
Paul Nowak, general secretary of the Trades Union Congress, has warned Keir Starmer that cutting Personal Independence Payment (PIP) “is not the solution” after 14 years of Tory austerity.
Furthermore, Nowak added that cutting disability will make current challenges worse and be unpopular with the public.
In a rare public criticism of the government, the TUC leader said: “A major lesson from the Tory years is that austerity damaged the nation’s health. We must not make the same mistake again.
“Pushing disabled people into hardship with cuts to support will only make the current challenges worse – and will not win public support.”
He added that “after 14 disastrous years of Tory rule”, a lot needs to be done to improve public services.
“But cutting PIP is not the solution – not least because it enables many disabled people to access work so that they do not have to rely on out of work benefits,” he said.
Nowak said that Labour should prioritise fixing problems with PIP, “with input from trade unions and organisations led by disabled people”.
Opposition to Labour’s plans for £5 billion in welfare spending cuts is growing. Over the weekend, Rachael Maskell MP expressed that Labour colleagues have voiced “deep, deep concern” about the proposed reforms.
On BBC Radio 4 this morning, Labour MP Nadia Whittome, said that the party is “getting it badly wrong” on welfare reform.
“It is not disabled people who crashed the economy or who were responsible for low wages or rising rents or falling living standards – we must not scapegoat them for the failures and political choices of Conservative governments,” she said.
Asked if she would rebel on this issue, Whittome, who was on disability benefits as a teenager, said: “I can’t look my constituents in the eye. I can’t look my mum in the eye and support this.”
Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward
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