“Indefensible”: That’s what Keir Starmer called cutting disability benefits when the Tories were in power

Keir Starmer seems to be pressing ahead with cuts to the Personal Independence Payment (PIP) and the health element of Universal Credit (UC). Yet in 2016, Starmer called the Tories’ planned cuts to PIP “indefensible while rewarding the well off”.

Starmer: more faces than a Rubik’s Cube

It’s another instance of what we can only describe as Starmer’s brazen dishonesty and opportunism. Starmer himself is now refusing to carry out a wealth tax on the richest 0.04% of people in the country, which would rebalance the economy by £24bn every year. Instead, he’s increasing inequality with cuts to disabled people’s support, delivering £4.8bn in fresh austerity. That’s exactly what he criticised the Tories for while he was in opposition.

Even the Conservatives under David Cameron dropped their £4.4bn cuts to disabled people’s support in 2016. And that was a government that became the first globally to be investigated by the UN for “systematic and grave violations” of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD).

Pressure on Starmer

The Labour prime minister is facing pressure to U-turn on the cuts. On 19 June, Labour MP Vicky Foxcroft resigned as government whip in recognition of disabled people and the harm the cuts will cause, including through pushing hundreds of thousands of people into poverty.

Meanwhile, Jeremy Corbyn and the Independent Alliance of MPs have tabled an amendment to the bill that would bring it to a grinding halt. The amendment notes that Starmer’s government has failed to consult with disabled people and carers, ignored “robust evidence”, and shrugged off its own impact assessment that found the cuts will bring 250,000 more people into poverty (other analysis has it higher). It states the bill shouldn’t go to a second reading.

Welfare secretary Liz Kendall has claimed that the benefits system could collapse if the cuts do not go ahead. But the Labour government said the same thing about the winter fuel payment and how they were fixing a so-called “black hole”. Chancellor Rachel Reeves said they “had to act” to “fix the mess”. They then U-turned on the cut to pensioner support and ensured that low-income older people will receive it. So this is just another instance of a neoliberal government attempting to manufacture consent for austerity.

With a Labour government now targeting disabled people, it is worth remembering that the true scroungers are landlords, inflated-pay-packet top slicers, rent-seeking utility owners, and tax-haven dwellers. That said, it’s ultimately the whole rigged system that’s the issue.