Ministers face intense pressure to perform a U-turn over plans for a £1.3 billion a year cut in disability benefits as Tory MPs threaten to revolt over the measure. I hope and believe all opposition parties will join with us in that.
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‘The reason I say that is because I do feel if opposing something, we should also identify where else it could be funded from’.
Iain Duncan Smith is battling to head off a growing Tory rebellion in a Commons vote on the Budget next week against cuts in benefits to disabled people.
The chancellor said the overall disability budget “is going up” and ministers would be talking to colleagues and disability charities to “make sure we get this absolutely right”.
“We have got the time now to be explaining it to colleagues across the House, and engaging with disability groups”.
The first thing I saw from George Osborne’s budget was his announcement on Personal Independent Payments (PIPs), then I saw that he was offering a tax cut to higher earners. “This is about reining in the ballooning of this spending that we have seen over recent months”.
And Tory MP Andrew Percy warned Mr Osborne yesterday that a “significant” number of backbenchers are ready to rebel over the issue.
Robert Mooney, of the Community trade union’s National League of the Blind and Disabled, said the plans were “fundamentally unfair”.
“Given that prices at the pump have fallen over 30p I think people would pay 2p to protect vulnerable and disabled people”, he said.
“The difference on this to tax credits is, although hard to sell and wrongheaded, people who lost out from them would eventually be compensated through the system”.
The Conservatives were elected last May on a mandate to fix Britain’s public finances, including cuts to welfare spending, but their popularity has weakened as the scale of the cuts has become clear.
“These changes will be the straw that will break the camel’s back for many of our members who face challenges in securing employment or access to health and care services”.
When the Government’s response to the consultation was published last week, it said the Department for Work and Pensions had chose to implement the changes from January 1, 2017 for new claims and claimants who report a change of circumstances. That’s before it even gets to the Lords – who played repeated ping pong with the cuts to ESA disability benefits, refusing to let them pass each time and using their powers to try to stall them coming in.
“This is not a fait accompli”.
He told BBC2’s Newsnight: “There’s lots that we are doing so much better but this puts us on the back foot”.
And in further embarrassment for the Government, the Conservative candidate for London mayor, Zac Goldsmith, has resigned as patron of a charity for the disabled after it called on him to quit over his support for cuts.
She told BBC1’s Question Time: “This is a measure that is still being discussed in Government”.
Sarah Wollaston, the Conservative chairman of the Commons Health Committee, said the plan did not have the support of the Tory backbenches and that a rethink by ministers was “highly likely”.
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Morgan didn’t “seem to understand” the proposals, said the source.
