Keir Starmer will be forced to hold a ‘humiliating’ vote of confidence in his own Government if he loses a showdown with Labour’s welfare rebels, Lord Blunkett has warned.
The former Labour work and pensions secretary said the Prime Minister should delay next week’s crunch vote on a £5 billion package of benefit cuts until the autumn to allow more time to reach a compromise with mutinous MPs.
Lord Blunkett last night suggested the PM had failed to focus on the peril the Government is in because he has spent so much time abroad.
And he warned that losing the vote could trigger a crisis for the Government. The Labour grandee told LBC: ‘If they lost it, they’d have to go for a vote of confidence, I think.
‘But the embarrassment of that one year in leaves you with two problems. One is you’ve been humiliated, and the second is you’ve still got the problem. The welfare issue has not gone away. So, solving the problem, not taking the hit, is the sensible solution.’
Urging a delay in the vote, he added: ‘Keir Starmer, for very understandable reasons, has been diverted on to the international agenda. I think he now needs to come back from Holland and be absolutely focused on this.’
His intervention came as the PM opened the door to concessions to welfare rebels yesterday – and defended his leadership on the issue.
A rattled-looking Sir Keir bridled at suggestions he had failed to read the mood of Labour MPs, of whom more than 120 have signed a ‘fatal’ amendment designed to kill off the welfare cuts when they are put to a vote in the Commons next Tuesday.
Speaking at the Nato summit in The Hague, he said he was finding it ‘tough going’, but his landslide election victory last year showed he was capable of ‘reading the room’.
‘Are there plenty of people and noises off?’ he said. ‘Yes, of course, there always are. But the important thing is to focus on the change we want to bring about.’
Pressure from Labour whips and Cabinet ministers has made no impact on the revolt, with the number of rebels continuing to rise in recent days.
Sir Keir yesterday insisted the vote will go ahead, despite rumours it will be postponed to avoid humiliation.
However, the PM appeared to hint at concessions. ‘You won’t find many people who don’t want reform,’ he said. ‘So we are on the same page. The question is how is that reform being carried out?’
Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner also hinted at concessions last night, telling ITV’s Peston show: ‘Discussions are ongoing around making sure the reforms we bring in support people into work who need that.’
If I can work, so can rest of Britain, says amputee peer
By Political Editor
Many sickness benefit claimants should ‘get off their backsides’ and find a job, according to a Tory peer who lost his hands and feet to sepsis.
Former MP Craig Mackinlay said yesterday many receiving the benefits did not have ‘traditional full disability issues’ and should be able to do some work.
Lord Mackinlay told media company Talk that he has three roles – he works as a chartered accountant one day a week and is director of the Global Warming Policy Foundation – and commutes daily.
‘I have got four [prosthetic limbs] and I go to work every single day of the week,’ he said. ‘If I can do it, for heaven’s sake, Britain, get off your backsides.’
Lord Mackinlay criticised the system for assessing entitlement to sickness and disability benefits, suggesting it was too easy to get the ‘golden ticket’ of a lifetime on handouts, with ‘all sorts of conditions’ from alcoholism to obesity covered.
‘We are being taken for absolute fools,’ he added.
In 2023, Lord Mackinlay was placed in an induced coma for 16 days due to sepsis and recovered despite being given only a 5 per cent chance of survival.
