KindnessCommunity

Treasury select committee chair Meg Hillier, who spearheaded welfare amendment and is not a rebel by nature, tells me it is not intended to wreck the bill - but to encourage the govt to pause. "We all want the Labour government to succeed in getting people back into work and supporting those who can't. We don't want to defeat the government but we want the government to think again," she says. "We are being asked to vote before consultation with disabled people and before impact assessments." Ministers argue that watering down the bill would leave a multi-billion pound black hole in Rachel Reeves's attempts to balance the books. But Hillier says: "We recognise that the financial situation is difficult. As the chancellor says governing is about choices. We don't disagree that there is a need to reform welfare but it's hard to deliver the proposed improvements in the proposed timescale. And disabled people must be protected."