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Sir Keir Starmer’s government has gutted its welfare reform legislation hours before a crunch vote, in a U-turn that means the package is likely to make close to zero savings.
The Labour government made the concession after the biggest rebellion of Starmer’s year-old premiership. The legislation had previously been expected to make £4.8bn of savings by reining in the ballooning welfare bill while encouraging people back to work.
Work and pensions secretary Liz Kendall agreed the last-minute climbdown.
“What you’re netting out at is basically no savings — it will be just above zero,” said Louise Murphy, a senior economist at the Resolution Foundation, about the decision to scrap all tracts of the bill relating to disability benefit reform.
This is a developing story
