Keir Starmer insisted a crunch Commons vote on benefits reforms will go ahead next week despite looking doomed to a disastrous defeat.
The PM is looking down the barrel of a huge rebellion with nearly 130 MPs having signed an amendment that would effectively kill off flagship legislation.
Rachel Reeves has been ringing round backbenchers warning that losing the curbs to health and disability benefits would ‘devastate’ the government.
Even with the proposed £5billion of savings welfare costs will still be soaring, and economists believe she will have to hike taxes in the Autumn to balance the books.
The the scale of the insurrection is enough to overturn Labour’s huge majority. The last time a government Bill was lost at second reading was 1986.
One minister has already quit in protest, with others thought to be ready to walk out.
But speaking at the Nato summit this morning, Sir Keir dismissed intense speculation in Whitehall that he could opt to delay the showdown.
‘There’ll be a vote on Tuesday, we’re going to make sure we reform the welfare system,’ he said.
Arguing his party was elected ‘to change that which is broken’, he said the welfare system ‘doesn’t work for anyone’.
He added: ‘It traps people in a position where they can’t get into work. In fact, it’s counterproductive, it works against them getting into work.
‘So we have to reform it, and that is a Labour argument, it’s a progressive argument.’
Social Security Minister Sir Stephen Timms told MPs today there was ‘urgency’ in the need for reform to the welfare system.
Work and Pensions Committee chairwoman Debbie Abrahams, who is one of the Labour MPs to have signed the amendment to block the legislation, asked why the provisions within the Bill had not been consulted on.
‘Essentially because of the urgency of the changes needing to be made,’ he replied.
‘If we look at personal independence payment (Pip) – the year before the pandemic, in current prices, Pip cost the then government £12 billion. Last year it cost the government £22 billion and the cost of it went up by £3 billion per year – or £2.8 billion per year – last year alone.
‘And that is not a sustainable trajectory. So there was a need for urgency with the changes.’
But, pressed by Ms Abrahams, he accepted that rise in cost of living is also a factor because ‘people who may well have always been eligible but have not in the past claimed benefit, are now doing’.
The rebellion against changes to Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payments (Pip) extends far beyond the ‘usual suspects’ on Labour’s hard Left.
The list includes former Cabinet minister Louise Haigh, ex-whip Vicky Foxcroft, who quit her government job over the issue last week, and a dozen select committee chairmen.
Labour whips and senior ministers including Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting were last night ringing round to persuade MPs to change their minds.
But the revolt has continued to build, with more adding their names to the amendment overnight.
Some senior Labour figures blame Downing Street and Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall for allowing the debate to be framed as ‘cuts’.
‘It has been sold badly to the Parliamentary Party,’ one insider told MailOnline. ‘The message from the outset should have been that this is the only way to save the welfare system Labour created, or it might exist in a couple of decades.’
Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham urged the leadership to think again last night, joining London Mayor Sadiq Khan in speaking out.
‘The Government needs to take a more unifying path… there is genuine, deep anxiety about these proposals,’ Mr Burnham told the BBC’s Newsnight.
Officials had been said to be drawing up contingency plans to delay the vote until later in the year if compromises cannot be found.
A party source said: ‘With some, it’s a case of appealing to their party loyalty; with others it’s appealing to their ambition and making the point that anyone serious about wanting to be a minister will have to back the Government on a vote like this.
‘But the scale of it is enormous and there is not much time before the vote.’
Defeat would raise questions about whether Labour can ever tame the sickness benefits bill, which is on course to top £100billion a year by the next election if the reforms are dropped.
Kemi Badenoch has offered Tory support for the legislation, provided Sir Keir commits to further measures to bring down the bloated benefits bill and get people back to work – and guarantees no further tax rises.
However, Labour immediately dismissed the prospects of Sir Keir agreeing to such terms.
A spokesman said: ‘We’re fixing the abysmal mess the Tories left behind, and MPs can either vote to keep a broken, failed welfare system that writes people off, or they can vote to start fixing it.’
