Starmer tells Labour MPs ‘we cannot shrug shoulders’ over welfare
The Prime Minister said he was ‘not afraid to take the big decisions’ to ‘fix what is broken’.
Sir Keir Starmer has warned Labour MPs that the Government could not “shrug our shoulders and look away” from problems in the welfare system and elsewhere amid backbench concerns over expected reforms.
The Prime Minister said he was “not afraid to take the big decisions” to “fix what is broken” as he addressed a meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party on Monday evening.
Loud cheers and table-banging were heard from outside at the closed-doors gathering in Westminster, though some MPs have expressed fears of cuts to the benefits bill in the spring statement.
Rachel Reeves is expected to slash spending by billions of pounds in the face of tighter economic headroom when she addresses MPs on the state of the public finances on March 26.
Speaking at the meeting, Sir Keir said: “We’ve found ourselves in a worst of all worlds situation – with the wrong incentives – discouraging people from working, the taxpayer funding a spiralling bill, £70 billion a year by 2030.
“A wasted generation, one in eight young people not in education, employment or training, and the people who really need that safety net still not always getting the dignity they deserve.”
He added: “This needs to be our offer to people up and down the country: if you can work, we will make work pay. If you need help, that safety net will be there for you. But this is the Labour Party. We believe in the dignity of work and we believe in the dignity of every worker.
“Which is why I am not afraid to take the big decisions needed to return this country to their interests. Whether that’s on welfare, immigration, our public services or our public finances.
“We can’t just shrug our shoulders and look away. We can’t just tinker around the edges. We won’t try and sow division or create distractions, we’ll roll up our sleeves, take responsibility and make the reforms needed to fix what is broken.”
It comes after Labour MP for York Central Rachael Maskell urged the Government to avoid “draconian cuts” to the system.
Speaking to the BBC’s Westminster Hour on Sunday, Ms Maskell said she had had a “flurry of emails” from people who were “deeply concerned” about the prospect of changes to the system.
She told the programme: “We recognise the economic circumstances that we’re in and the hand that we were given, and of course it is right that the Chancellor has oversight over all those budgets, but not at the expense of pushing disabled people into poverty.”
She added: “There’s got to be a carrot approach, not a stick approach.
“We’ve got to make the right interventions and that doesn’t start with the stick.”
Ministers have made clear in recent weeks that there will be an overhaul given an “unsustainable rise in welfare spending”, with Downing Street warning of a “broken social security system holding our people back”.
Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall has already told Cabinet colleagues that the current system is “holding back the economy” and is “bad for people’s well-being and health”.
Elsewhere at the meeting on Monday, Sir Keir addressed MPs about his recent commitment of the biggest increase to defence spending since the Cold War amid uncertainty over the future security of Ukraine and its implications for Europe.
“The real world is moving quickly and people look to their government not to be buffeted about by that change – not even to merely respond to it – but to seize it and shape it for the benefit of the British people,” he said.
“Our defence and the security of the British people must come first. The extra defence spending I announced last week will rebuild industry across the country. It will support businesses, it will provide good, secure jobs and skills for the next generation. That is what we owe the British people.”
