A frustrated Sir Keir Starmer has told Labour MPs attacking his welfare reforms to “read the room” as he hit back against rebels lining up to vote down the changes next week.
It came as deputy prime minister Angela Rayner finally broke cover to publicly back Sir Keir’s controversial benefit cuts amid a growing rebellion of Labour MPs that threatens to topple the bill.
With 122 Labour backbenchers now signed up to support an amendment, which would kill the bill, on Tuesday, the prime minister went on the attack. Warnings of potential deselections and the possibility of the government’s collapse had previously failed.
Speaking at the Nato summit in the Hague, Sir Keir said: “So many people predicted before the election that we… hadn’t got the politics right. We wouldn’t win an election after 2019 because we lost so badly. That was the constant charge of me at press conferences like this, and we got a landslide victory.”
“Unquestionably, with reading the room and delivering the change the country needs, we’ve got a strong Labour government with huge authority to deliver on our manifesto commitment.
“So, that’s the work that we did over many years to win the election. Now we start the work over many years to change the country.”
Meanwhile, Ms Rayner, filling in for Sir Keir at PMQs, insisted the controversial reforms would help “millions trapped in a failing [welfare] system”.
She said Labour was still “the party of fairness” and was confident the vote on the second reading of the welfare reform bill would go ahead on Tuesday next week, despite the number of Labour rebels backing an amendment to kill the legislation growing.
Her intervention came after several Labour MPs had privately commented that she had not been deployed as much as other cabinet ministers in attempting to talk backbenchers down from voting against the government.
Efforts to win over rebels had been led by Health Secretary Wes Streeting, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Pat McFadden, Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds and Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall.
Meanwhile, earlier this year, a memo from Ms Rayner was leaked, which revealed that she had pushed for eight wealth taxes on corporations and the richest individuals instead of cuts. She also fought tooth and nail with the Treasury over plans for cuts to her Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government during the spending review.
The deputy prime minister’s job was made easier at PMQs by the fact that Labour MPs avoided asking about the issue of welfare reform. This included Debbie Abrahams, who, as chair of the work and pensions select committee, is one of those leading the rebellion.
But Tories and Lib Dems pounced on the issue and, with some whips claiming it could be a confidence issue in the government, suggested that it might be a pretext for Ms Rayner to replace the prime minister.
Shadow chancellor Sir Mel Stride said: “It is great to see (Ms Rayner) standing in temporarily for the prime minister for the second week running, although I know there are many sitting behind her who wish this was a permanent arrangement.
“Indeed, you will find many of their names amongst the 122 who have signed up to oppose the government’s welfare Bill. They say that the Bill is dangerously rushed and ill thought through. So can (Ms Rayner) explain why she thinks that she is right, and 122 of her own colleagues are wrong?”
Ms Rayner responded: “We won’t walk away and stand by and abandon millions of people trapped in the failing system left behind by him and his colleagues.”
Later when he pressed her on whether the vote will go ahead on Tuesday, she came back: “I don’t know if he, sort of, listened to what I said, because he was reading off the script, but what I can tell him – and I don’t need a script – we will go ahead on Tuesday.”
The Tories have offered to support the welfare reform if Labour meets three conditions, including cutting benefits further, not increasing taxes and getting people back into work.
Ms Rayner accused them of not looking at the detail of the legislation, which she said was aimed at getting people off benefits and back into work and accused them of creating the failed system Labour needs to reform.
When Lib Dem deputy leader Daisy Cooper took up the issue, Ms Rayner’s response appeared to be aimed at the Labour backbenches.
“Labour is the party of fairness,” she hit back.
