‘Terrible mistake’: Scarborough and Whitby MP joins Labour rebellion to stop welfare bill

Alison Hume, the MP for Scarborough and Whitby, has joined more than 100 Labour MPs in signing a “reasoned amendment” that could halt the welfare cuts proposed by the Government.

The amendment notes “the need for the reform of the social security system” and while agreeing with the Government’s principles for providing support to people into work and protecting people who cannot work, it “declines to give a Second Reading to the Universal Credit and Personal Independent Payment (PIP) Bill”.

Ms Hume, who has so far not voted against any Government bills, said she feared the Government was “making a terrible mistake on the proposed PIP policy”.

The amendment has been spearheaded by select committee chairs and its 108 supporters include MPs who are “not typically seen as rebels”.

Alison Hume MP said: “After twenty-five years in the disability space as a supporter and dealing with DWP over PIP, both for my son and other families I have assisted, I fear the government is making a terrible mistake on the proposed PIP policy.

“The Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill has now been published and it will have its first reading on Tuesday, July 1.

“Depressingly, it still contains the eligibility requirement for claimants to score 4 in a single daily living activity as well as scoring 8 points for the standard rate or 12 for the enhanced rate.”

She said that while the country’s welfare bill was “horrendous and unsustainable,” Ms Hume added that “the inescapable fact is that disabled people and their families and carers will be disproportionately harmed as a result of these cuts, and I can’t square that with my conscience as a Labour MP”.

“As it stands, MPs are being asked to vote for something without knowing the impact in terms of poverty and hardship.”

The amendment, which was made public on Tuesday, adds that “provisions have not been subject to a formal consultation with disabled people, or co-produced with them, or their carers”.

It also notes that “the Government’s own impact assessment estimates that 250,000 people will be pushed into poverty as a result of these provisions, including 50,000 children”.

Government frontbenchers have highlighted that weakening the welfare changes could leave a “multibillion-pound black hole in Rachel Reeves’s attempts to balance the country’s books”.

The chancellor said recently that the Government would not make further amendments: “There will be no U-turn. We’re voting on it next week.”