DEMONSTRATIONS are taking place outside Parliament from 1.00pm today, and in towns and cities around the country, as the Labour government seeks to pass its vicious Welfare Reform Bill in the House of Commons this evening.
Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC) declared: ‘Vote on social security cuts due late afternoon/ early evening meet Old Palace Yard from 1.00pm onwards. Vote is expected to be in the evening so plan for a long stay or just drop in.
‘DPAC will be making a list of MPs who vote in favour and will make sure they lose their seats at the next General Election and that their disabled constituents hound them until then.’
Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall gave a nervous report to the House of Commons yesterday ahead of today’s vote, in a bid to face off today’s Labour revolt.
Kendall claimed the government has ‘listened carefully’ to concerns and changed its original plans.
Just before speaking in the Commons, she confirmed changes to the government’s plans that were already known, and announced an extra £300m for a ‘Pathways to Work’ scheme to force disabled people off benefits.
She quoted ‘new modelling’ which she claimed suggests that ‘only’ 150,000 people will be pushed into poverty by 2030 as a result of the cuts, lower than the 250,000 estimate under her original plans.
Rachel Maskell, Labour MP for York North, was not impressed and warned that she would definitely be voting against.
She said: ‘Not a single disabled person’s organisation is supporting these reforms, so I think that’s really telling that the government hasn’t been able to shift people to support it. Because obviously we know that the impact on the future will be quite devastating.
‘It is really quite chaotic in government and it probably isn’t the full picture because we don’t know the PIP points, as they are called, that people score for their assessments on washing and dressing and feeding, or whether or not people are going to be treated more leniently in the system in the future or more harshly.
‘We are really being asked to give the government a blank cheque tomorrow on what type of bill we’re voting on that’s still up in the air.
‘… Disabled people haven’t fought all their lives to then draw up the ladder behind them.
‘They are very worried about the people who follow and that’s what I’ve been really tuned into. That’s what they are saying and I really want the government to listen to them.’
SNP MP Kirsty Blackman asked why changes to the benefits system were not in Labour’s manifesto ahead of last year’s general election, saying: ‘Is it perhaps because she realised how deeply unpopular and wrong these changes would be?’
