PRIME MINISTER Keir Starmer on Monday announced a renewed attempt to reform the social security system after MPs in his party blocked reforms proposed last summer.
Starmer also defended chancellor Rachel Reeves against Conservative claims that she misrepresented the state of public finances before last week’s budget.
Reeves’s budget proposed higher taxes to fund measures to address the cost-of-living crisis, including lifting a benefit cap on children.
The budget was received positively by markets and left-wing Labour MPs, but triggered accusations that Labour had broken its manifesto pledge not to raise taxes for workers.
“As the budget showed the path to a Britain that is truly built for all requires many more decisions that are not cost-free and they’re not easy,” Starmer said in his Monday speech.
He said his government “must also reform the welfare state itself”.
During the summer, the government withdrew earlier proposed social security reforms — including cuts to disability and sickness benefits — after more than 120 of its own MPs rebelled.
Many Labour MPs have raised concerns about a disconnect between Starmer’s leadership, which has focused on countering the rise of Reform UK, and the party’s traditional centre-left positions.
Britain has a record number of people — many of them young people — on long-term sickness leave and outside the job market.
“If you are simply written off because you're neurodivergent or disabled, then it can trap you in a cycle of worklessness and dependency for decades,” Starmer said.
That, he said, “costs the country money, is bad for our productivity, but most importantly of all — costs the country opportunity and potential”.
Starmer said Reeves had acted honestly ahead of her budget despite financial documents indicating that the country’s finances were not as severe as she had stated.
“There was no misleading,” he said.
Opinion polls show the government is struggling on several issues, including its failure to stimulate Britain’s weak economy.
Starmer, who has said he will not take Britain back into the EU single market or customs union, said Brexit had “significantly hurt” the UK’s economy.
“We have to keep moving towards a closer relationship with the EU, and we have to be grown-up about that, to accept that this will require trade-offs,” he said.
