A growing number of Labour MPs are supporting a bid to block the government’s planned welfare changes, despite ministers phoning backbenchers to persuade them to back down.More than 130 MPs, including 122 Labour MPs, have signed an amendment that would give them the opportunity to vote on a proposal to reject plans to cut disability and sickness-related benefits payments to save £5bn a year by 2030.Cabinet ministers are reported to be among those ringing round Labour MPs, calling on them to remove their names from the amendment. Only one Labour MP, Samantha Niblett, has removed her name from the list so far.Sir Keir Starmer has vowed to “press ahead” with the welfare changes.Those who signed the amendment opposing the government’s welfare reforms include MPs from the 2024 intake, as well as those who were elected MPs before Labour’s landslide election victory. Labour MP Helen Hayes, who signed the amendment, denied it was any sort of confidence vote, saying “that’s absolutely not the case”.”Nobody who has signed this amendment wants to be in a position next week of voting against the government,” she said.”We’re asking the government, after many weeks of sharing our concerns privately, to listen to our concerns to avoid a situation next week where there’s conflict.”A confidence issue is generally seen as similar to a test of whether the government still maintains its support in the House of Commons.The names also include two MPs who were elected for Labour but have been suspended by the party – John McDonnell and Andrew Gwynne.Other signatories are members of Northern Ireland’s political parties as well as Rosie Duffield, who quit Labour to sit as an independent.It …
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[mwai_chat context=”Let’s have a discussion about this article:nnA growing number of Labour MPs are supporting a bid to block the government’s planned welfare changes, despite ministers phoning backbenchers to persuade them to back down.More than 130 MPs, including 122 Labour MPs, have signed an amendment that would give them the opportunity to vote on a proposal to reject plans to cut disability and sickness-related benefits payments to save £5bn a year by 2030.Cabinet ministers are reported to be among those ringing round Labour MPs, calling on them to remove their names from the amendment. Only one Labour MP, Samantha Niblett, has removed her name from the list so far.Sir Keir Starmer has vowed to “press ahead” with the welfare changes.Those who signed the amendment opposing the government’s welfare reforms include MPs from the 2024 intake, as well as those who were elected MPs before Labour’s landslide election victory. Labour MP Helen Hayes, who signed the amendment, denied it was any sort of confidence vote, saying “that’s absolutely not the case”.”Nobody who has signed this amendment wants to be in a position next week of voting against the government,” she said.”We’re asking the government, after many weeks of sharing our concerns privately, to listen to our concerns to avoid a situation next week where there’s conflict.”A confidence issue is generally seen as similar to a test of whether the government still maintains its support in the House of Commons.The names also include two MPs who were elected for Labour but have been suspended by the party – John McDonnell and Andrew Gwynne.Other signatories are members of Northern Ireland’s political parties as well as Rosie Duffield, who quit Labour to sit as an independent.It …nnDiscussion:nn” ai_name=”RocketNews AI: ” start_sentence=”Can I tell you more about this article?” text_input_placeholder=”Type ‘Yes'”]
