Starmer ploughs ahead with planned welfare cuts despite brewing rebellion - as over 100 MPs back plan to 'kill the bill'

24 June 2025, 14:18 | Updated: 25 June 2025, 08:39

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, during a visit to the Netherlands marines training base, as part of the UK-Netherland Joint Amphibious Force in Rotterdam, during a visit to attend the Nato Summit at the Hague, Netherlands.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, during a visit to the Netherlands marines training base, as part of the UK-Netherland Joint Amphibious Force in Rotterdam, during a visit to attend the Nato Summit at the Hague, Netherlands. Picture: Alamy

By Natasha Clark - from the NATO summit in the Hague

The Prime Minister has doubled down on his planned welfare cuts – despite a brewing rebellion of more than 100 MPs who could vote them down next week.

Listen to this article

Loading audio...

Sir Keir Starmer insisted there was a “clear moral case” for the changes, arguing that the current system isn’t working and “traps people” on benefits.

The government plans to push forwards with a vote on the cuts to Personal Independence Payments on Tuesday.

But last night it emerged that around 135 backbenchers have signed their names to a wrecking amendment which would stop it in its tracks.

The prime minister told reporters on the way to the NATO summit in the Hague that he would push ahead with the “Labour reforms”.

However, he did not commit to holding the vote on Tuesday as planned.

Read more: UK and NATO allies to include 'money spent on tackling small boats' to boost defence spending in bid to appease Trump

Read more: LIVE: Israel orders strikes 'in heart of Tehran' as Trump warns 'bring your pilots home, now'

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer visits the Netherlands marines training base, as part of the UK-Netherland Joint Amphibious Force in Rotterdam, during a visit to attend the Nato Summit at the Hague, Netherlands. Picture date: Tuesday June 24, 2025.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer visits the Netherlands marines training base, as part of the UK-Netherland Joint Amphibious Force in Rotterdam, during a visit to attend the Nato Summit at the Hague, Netherlands. Picture date: Tuesday June 24, 2025. Picture: Alamy

Sir Keir slapped down suggestions he had failed to make the moral case for the cuts.

He said: “There is a clear moral case, which is the current system doesn't help those who want to get into work.

“It traps people. I think it's 1000 people a day going on to PIP.

“The additions to PIP each year are the equivalent of the population of a city the size of Leicester.

“That is not a system that can be left unreformed, not least because it's unsustainable, and therefore you won't have a welfare system for those that need it in the future.

“But it's not sustainable to add a city the size of Leicester every year and assume that that can be a sustainable future, a model for the future.”

He insisted that the party were elected to “change what is broken in our country” and added: “we will press ahead with our reforms.

Sir Keir went on: “We were elected in to change what is broken in our country. The welfare system is broken, and that's why we will press ahead with our reforms. It's very important that we do so, because the current system is not working for anybody. People are trapped in it, and I'm not prepared to allow that to happen. So we will press forward with our reforms.”

He declined to say if he’d be prepared to pass the new changes on the back of Tory votes.

Kemi Badenoch’s party has said the changes won’t go far enough to make the savings required, but it’s not clear whether the Conservatives will vote for them or not.