Inside Labour's welfare split

Coffee House Shots

The Spectator

News, Politics, Government, Daily News

4.4 • 2.1K Ratings

🗓️ 18 March 2025

⏱️ 14 minutes

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Summary

This afternoon we had Liz Kendall’s long-awaited address in the Commons on Labour’s plans for welfare reform. The prospect of £5 billion worth of cuts to welfare has split the party in two, with fears of a rebellion growing over the weekend and into this week.

Her announcement was a mixed bag, including: restricting eligibility for the Personal Independence Payment (PIP) so that only those who have the highest level of disability can claim the benefit and – to sweeten the deal for backbenchers – announcing that the government will not bring in vouchers for disability benefit or freeze PIP. One of the new lines that had not been trailed in advance was that under 22s would not be eligible for the health top-up of Universal Credit (UC). What’s the politics of all this? Will Labour MPs stomach Liz Kendall’s benefits crackdown?

Katy Balls speaks to The Spectator's new economics editor Michael Simmons and Stephen Bush, associate editor at the Financial Times.

Produced by Oscar Edmondson and Cindy Yu.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This episode of Coffee House Shots is sponsored by Alliance Witten Investment Trust. From the OPEC
0:06.0	Oil Crisis of the 1970s, the financial crash in 2008, to the COVID epidemic and Liz Truss's
0:13.1	doomed premiership. There has been no shortage of economic crises over the last 58 years. And yet,
0:19.6	throughout that time, every single year, without fail,
0:22.8	we've paid out an increased dividend to our shareholders. In fact, Alliance Witten's history
0:28.3	dates all the way back to 1888. And today, we manage around £5 billion in assets.
0:35.5	If you're looking for a less stressful way to invest in stocks and shares,
0:39.2	learn more about Alliance Witten and find your comfort zone.
0:46.6	Hello and welcome to Coffee House Shots, the Spectators' Daily Politics Podcast.
0:51.2	I'm Katie Bawls and I am joined by our new economics editor, Michael Simmons,
0:56.0	and an old coffee house shop's favourite. That's not me saying you're old, by the way,
1:00.9	just that you've long loved. Stephen Bush from the Financial Times. Thank you both.
1:06.3	Michael, just to kick things off, we have had the much awaited announcement today from Liz Kendall
1:11.2	in the Commons Chamber of the government's plans for welfare reform, talk us through the main
1:16.6	announcements, and how they corresponded to what was briefed in advance. Yeah, so there's a mix of things
1:23.0	and it's sort of come carrot and stick. And if we start with the carrot, some of the changes are that UC is going to be put up above
1:31.8	inflation.
1:32.5	So that's going to mean that UC payments are going to go up by about £775 per claimant.
1:39.0	Also, people who suffer from the kind of worst, most debilitating illnesses are not going
1:43.9	to be subject to continual reassessmentsitating illnesses are not going to be subject to
1:45.3	continual reassessments. They're just going to be assessed once and effectively left alone
1:51.2	on the benefit. And that's something that disability campaigners have been calling for and sort of
	...

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