With rumours of several Labour MP’s set to rebel over the Government’s Welfare Reforms, Greater Manchester’s Mayor has also weighed into the argument
Speaking on BBC Radio Manchester yesterday Andy Burnham said that Rachel Reeves had made the wrong choice in cutting disability payments in the Spring Statement
“When I look at what was announced yesterday, there will obviously be a group of people who can be more supported to work.
“But I struggle to believe there will be no detrimental impact that further makes the lives of disabled people harder.
“The system does need fundamental reform and we have a large amount of agreement with the government on that, but I don’t think that reform would mitigate the potential impact of these cuts on all disabled people.
“I think it still risks causing some people significant harm.”
Saddleworth MP Debbie Abrahams Chair of the Work and Pensions Committee ,while not saying she is voting against the measures said in the House of Commons that “There are alternative, more compassionate ways to balance the books, rather than on the back of disabled people”
She asked Reeves “How will making people sicker and poorer help in terms of driving our economy up?”
Meanwhile Labour List reports that Labour has been accused of seeking to constrain party discussion over future welfare policy by a member of its governing body, just as the government unveils further cuts to benefits.
“Ann Black, Constituency Labour Party representative on the national executive committee, suggests that participants in the party’s national policymaking forum (NPF), which drafts the broad policy programme that future manifesto commitments are often largely drawn from, have been told to focus on “narrow topics” in this cycle.
Black wrote in an report for members this month that she was “concerned” at the changed role of NPF – the official mechanism by which general election policy platforms are formulated.
