Disabled Labour Members’ Rep Slams Starmer at Secret Meeting of Labour Supremos – Guido Fawkes

Disabled Labour Members’ Rep Slams Starmer at Secret Meeting of Labour Supremos

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All is not well among the chief apparatchiks of the Labour Party, who together make up its ruling National Executive Committee. At its regular meeting last month Starmer took both barrels from the party’s assembled commissars over his latter-day pivot to welfare restraint and spending cuts. NEC member Ann Black, who posts regular minutes of the NEC, revealed Starmer was challenged by the ‘disabled members’ representative’:

“The disabled members’ representative said that many disabled people were terrified, and helplines were overwhelmed. PIP (the personal independence payment) is designed to meet the extra costs of living with a disability whether or not someone is in work. Arbitrary changes to measurement will not make them less disabled. A green paper is supposed to be the basis of consultation, yet there had been no attempt to bring people with us. Others shared Keir’s concerns about those not earning or learning, but these measures were hard to defend. Keir replied that Liz Kendall’s package included £1 billion to help people back into work. The entire welfare system was heading for £70 billion a year, one-third of the NHS budget and more than policing and prisons combined, and this was not sustainable, but he would look at further support.”

Starmer was also harangued on child poverty. Black wrote: “Keir was proud of the significant falls in child poverty under the last Labour government, and determined to match its achievements. The strategy is still under development, but I welcome his personal commitment and await details of how it will be funded.” Starmer will want to abolish the Labour Party next…