THE WELFARE Bill, slashing benefits from the disabled and mentally ill, was passed by 335 votes to 260 in the House of Commons yesterday evening, with 44 Labour MPs voting against the government.
The first vote was on the Rachel Maskell (York Central) ‘reasoned amendment’ to trash the bill, which was backed by 138 disability groups. In the debate she condemned the bill for containing ‘Dickensian cuts from another era’. This was lost by 328 votes to 149.
After the vote, Stephen Morris, who is deaf-blind and Campaigns Officer for the charity Sense, said: ‘My PIP has helped me stay in work. Removing PIP from people will actually have the opposite result to what the government wishes.
‘Ultimately disabled people are not numbers on a balance sheet. We’re all individuals and we’re all worthy of being able to live with dignity and ultimately, if you want to get more disabled people into work you need to tackle the barriers that prevent them from finding employment.
‘This bill does not do so. How can it be fair that two people with the same condition and the same needs will be assessed differently and new claimants will be assessed under a more harsh criteria simply because of when they apply for the benefit. That doesn’t feel fair to me.’
Earlier, during the debate on the bill, Labour MP Imran Hussain (Bradford East) said: ‘We cannot balance the books off the backs off some of the most vulnerable in our society. It isn’t fair, it isn’t right and it’s not the Labour thing to do.’
Independent MP Ayoub Khan (Birmingham Perry Barr) called the bill ‘morally indefensible’, adding: ‘It is a calculated assault on some of the most marginalised people in our society. If this bill passes, it will be a national disgrace.’
Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn (Islington North) said: ‘The origin of the bill was a demand to save £5bn, which was wanted by the defence secretary for more armaments.’
Ian Byrne MP (Liverpool West Derby) said: ‘Disabled people in my constituency tell me of feeling abandoned, of feeling punished and perhaps most heartbreakingly, of believing that a Labour government, their Labour government, after 14 years of Tory austerity and attacks, Covid and the cost of living crisis, will protect them. That belief is now being shattered.’
