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The former shadow chancellor John McDonnell has joined those criticising the government’s proposed benefit cuts, as he accused ministers of lacking empathy and understanding over the proposed changes.
McDonnell, who sits as an independent MP after losing the Labour whip over a previous benefits vote, said he was surprised at how poorly Keir Starmer’s government had handled the lead-up to the policy changes.
Labour MPs said on Friday that the government could face frontbench resignations if it freezes some disability benefits.
Writing in the Guardian, McDonnell said: “Emails are pouring into MPs’ boxes from disabled people and carers, who are truly frightened by the suggestions from government sources and ministers’ speeches that the benefits they rely on are to be cut.
“The latest comments to a journalist from someone described as a ‘government insider’ demonstrate starkly what a tin ear some ministers have on this issue.
“This person accused Labour MPs who are expressing their constituents’ concerns about proposals to cut benefits of ‘pearl clutching’.
“It’s clear that some politicians have learned nothing from the winter fuel payment debacle that is still being raised angrily on the doorstep with Labour canvassers.
“More importantly, they appear to have learned nothing from the introduction of the work capability assessment for disabled people, associated with nearly 600 suicide deaths in England between 2010 and 2013.”
The changes will be published next week in a green paper, and the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, will present her spring statement to MPs on 26 March.
Labour MPs have told No 10 that resistance to the freezing of the personal independence payment (Pip) could be stronger than that to the means-testing of winter fuel allowance, one of the first major changes announced when Labour came into office.
The disquiet over welfare policy mirrors challenges Tony Blair faced in the early days of his Labour government in 1997. Forty-seven Labour MPs voted against the government’s move to cut benefits for single-parent families months after his landslide victory.
McDonnell was one of seven Labour MPs to have the whip removed in July last year, shortly after Labour entered office, when they supported the removal of the two-child benefit cap.
He is one of three MPs on the left of the party still yet to be given the whip back.
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The veteran Hayes and Harlington MP said the handling of the matter risked undermining policies by the work and pensions secretary, Liz Kendall, and the health secretary, Wes Streeting.
He said the decision to rule out increased taxes on high earners based on pre-election promises was “dogmatic and foolish”.
“The lack of understanding and empathy in the government’s policy planning and articulation has been shocking,” he said.
“There is still time for the Labour cabinet to act like a cabinet, and for its members to stand up to the Treasury to halt the cuts in benefits to the sick and disabled, and to insist on a more flexible interpretation of the fiscal rules and a limited set of tax measures. That would follow Starmer’s guiding principle that the broadest shoulders should bear the heaviest burden.”
Starmer’s deputy spokesperson said on Friday: “The system we’ve inherited would swallow up more taxpayers’ money and leave more people trapped in a life of unemployment and inactivity.
“That’s not just bad for the economy, it’s bad for people too, and that’s why this government will set out plans to overhaul the health and disability benefits system shortly so it supports those who can work to do so, whilst protecting those who can’t, to put welfare spending on a more sustainable path so that we can unlock growth.”
