Starmer In Crisis as Welfare U-Turn Triggers Parliamentary Labour Party Meltdown – Guido Fawkes

Starmer In Crisis as Welfare U-Turn Triggers Parliamentary Labour Party Meltdown

Labour’s first serious rebellion has resulted in a dire outcome for Starmer: an almost total u-turn on his welfare reform package overnight. Labour MPs are forcing No10 to change course as if this were the dying days of a Labour government…

One problem is fiscal. Dumping the reforms skews the basis for Reeves’s entire tax and spend position. Health minister Stephen Kinnock, when asked whether there would be further tax hikes, said:

“The full details of what we’re doing will be set out in parliament next week and then the financial side of it will be set out by the Chancellor in the Budget in the autumn. I don’t think it’s right for me to speculate now on taxes.”

According to the Institute for Fiscal Studies, the U-turn will cost £1.5 billion by the end of the Parliament – on top of the £1.25 billion u-turn on winter fuel announced just weeks ago. Huge tax rises are now inevitable after the summer…

The bigger problem is political. As Guido revealed, a blame game consumed the Downing Street team with acrimonious finger pointing over the handling of the vote. Labour sources this morning blame an ‘incompetent’ whips office and are asking whether Chief Whip Alan Campbell will make it through to September. Another camp views the shredding of welfare reform as the end of Starmer’s relationship with Morgan McSweeney, his chief adviser and an electoral realist. The U-turn isn’t even over yet, there are measures left in the Bill that Labour rebels still strongly oppose…