A mauling by MPs the day before took its toll on the work and pensions secretary amid yet more concessions to placate Labour rebels
You’ve got to ask yourself one thing: Just how many Labour MPs really believe in the concessions – sorry, measures (I keep making that mistake) – that the government has offered on the welfare bill. Who has really thought, you know what, it’s great that existing claimants can get to keep their benefits but anyone after November 2026 who finds themselves in need of help can do without. It’s a question of morality. Either you think no one deserves the full personal independence payments or that everyone does. It’s that binary.
Yet here we were again. On Monday, Liz Kendall had laid out her measures to try to mitigate the rebellion on her own backbenches that could have sunk the welfare bill at second reading.
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