Get your MP to act against cuts

Oh @chiarieds, bless you-you’re such a lovely soul. Thank you so much for taking the time to link everything and explain it all so clearly. Honestly, your little tutorial was great ! I’ve had the exact same issue you described with posting on the forum -at first, I thought it was just my wonky hands playing up, but then I realised it’s the forum itself! I also have another issue where the page sometimes auto-refreshes, and I lose my posts. Now I just copy the post into my Notes app or Word before replying- it autosaves, and I don’t lose everything if the thread suddenly refreshes.It also works much better with my voice dictation software.

I mostly use my mobile phone to access the forum — it’s easier for me to navigate and use voice control  , personalise touchscreen for clicks, since my hand movement is a bit limited.  I don’t have a desktop, so I usually access Scope on my phone — it’s just more flexible for me. I’ve got one of those long-arm flexible gooseneck mobile stands that keeps the phone steady, which really helps when I need to do the odd taps and clicks. I did try accessing the forum on my laptop this morning, just to see if it made any difference- but nope, same issues as before!

I totally agree with you -The Scope forum is amazing.I’ve only been on the Scope forum since January, but I’m learning so much every day-from lovely members like you and so many others on this forum who’ve been part of Scope for a long time. It’s honestly been such a warm and eye-opening space,I’m really grateful to be part of it.

It really does feel like a special kind of solidarity -even though we’ve never met in person, there’s such warmth and understanding here. I find it really comforting. I can really see why you value Scope so much, @chiarieds!

Sorry, I’m rambling now -I could go on and on! I know this thread is about getting MPs to vote against those awful proposed benefit cuts, so I’ll try to end it here! 😊

Oh !!Your son sounds amazing, by the way- finding creative ways to get around tricky systems.We need more of that energy!🤩

Thank you again for your kindness , compliments and support, Chiarieds. It really means a lot to me. Let’s all keep looking out for each other. Together, we’re stronger !💜 💪🏼

In Solidarity ✊

The mp's will vote as instructed by starmer or lose their jobs, all we can hope for is the good conscience of MP's, I would argue that hope is on extremely thin ice.

Labour council following Labour government in the ideological targeting.

https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/news/cost-of-living/leicester-city-council-rejects-calls-10147209

PIP now counting as income for council tax support, its a Labour safe haven council. Tories, Greens, Lib Dems all opposed the change.

This is Liz Kendall's city for those who dont know.

This quote is eye opening as well. There was a push for the council itself to officially write to Kendall to oppose the government cuts, and the Labour majority refused, showing how much it is in bed with the government.

Coun Kitterick branded them “cruel and vicious”, saying they would “potentially make life even worse for people in Leicester”. The motion called for the council to write to Ms Kendall to withdraw those cuts. The Government has previously said its plans are aimed at fixing a “broken benefits system”, with the changes intended to save around £5 billion before the end of 2030.

However, the ruling Labour group submitted their own amendment to the motion. This placed the blame for the changes on cuts to council finances under the 2012 Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition, and rejected the opposition groups’ calls for more financial aid for those impacted.

Thanks

This the is the group inside the Labour party who are behind the cuts:
https://www.labourtogether.uk/
https://www.labourtogether.uk/contact-us

DWP cuts are being driven by Starmer adviser Morgan McSweeney

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has been at the centre of a storm in recent days; more so than usual. It’s over the Labour Party government’s plans to cut £6bn from chronically ill and disabled people’s benefits.

Aside from the fact that disabled people feel scared and betrayed, many non-disabled people are pointing out that this plan from Labour is something the Tories would have enacted. In fact, the Tories weren’t even planning on cutting as much as Labour now are.

However, a group of Labour MPs who have been openly supporting their party’s attempts to cull disabled people points to where this drive for further decimation of the welfare state is coming from. And it’s right at the top of Downing Street – namely, Keir Starmer’s chief of staff Morgan McSweeney and his Labour Together think tank; the same people who destroyed Jeremy Corbyn and pushed Starmer into power in the first place.

People have been widely sharing a letter from a new group of MPs in the Labour Party. It’s called ‘Get Britain Working’ and is headed up by David Pinto-Duschinsky. He also sits on parliament’s Work and Pensions Select Committee:

The letter, signed by 36 Labour MPs, is basically issuing a public statement of support for Rachel Reeves and Liz Kendall’s plans to cut chronically ill and disabled people’s benefits. Pinto-Duschinsky even penned a column in City A.M. about the group. It was more-of-the-same nonsense: work is good for disabled people; we’ve got a worklessness crisis; people are left to rot on benefits, but the main problem is it’s costing us too much.

Now, you’d be forgiven for thinking that these 36 MPs just appeared out of thin air to create the Get Britain Working Group. Of course they didn’t.

Labour Together (again)

My colleague Hannah Sharland has done some extensive digging into these miscreants. And she found that almost every single one of them (29 in total) had either been funded by a) McSweeney’s Labour Together think tank directly (17) or b) by someone who had also donated to Labour Together (20), or both (8). You can browse her research here. Someone who funded six of these MPs was Trevor Chinn, one of the co-founders of Labour Together.

Of course, this is the same Labour Together that:

• Plotted to destroy Corbyn’s leadership of the Labour Party.
• Fomented the exaggerated antisemitism crisis.
• Went after grassroots Labour supporters and smeared them as antisemites.
• Created Stop Funding Fake News to try and destroy the Canary, SKWAWKBOX, and other independent media outlets.

Labour Together was the brainchild of McSweeney and Chinn – and the former is now Starmer’s chief of staff. However, the point with the fact it is Labour Together MPs openly supporting the DWP’s drive to cut disabled people’s benefits should not be a surprise either.

I have cerebral palsy and tourettes so struggling with my fingers to copy and paste on my phone. And I would love to help

From the Benefits and Work site

What you can still do to challenge the cuts

 Published: 17 June 2025

There are probably only two weeks to go until the first vote on Labour’s cuts takes place in the Commons.  Labour backbenchers suspected of planning to rebel will be bombarded with threats, bribes and misleading propaganda about the reform plans.

But there are still steps you can take to counter the pressure they are experiencing and also to encourage MPs of all parties to vote against the cuts.

Contact local councillors

This really is worth doing.  Cuts will have a very damaging effect on local authority budgets as care services, housing, health services, advice services and education will all be hit and everyone will be worse off as a result. So, it’s an issue councillors really should be raising with their MPs.

Tower Hamlets local authority has called on the government to reverse the cuts, which they estimate will cost them £8.5 million a year.

Two Labour councillors in Cheshire have resigned, in part over the cuts.  This is not earth shattering, but will be big news locally and will draw attention to Labour’s plans.

One reader who contacted 58 councillors has heard back from some who say they have contacted the local MP.  Our reader has also heard from the MP herself, who says she has been contacted by councillors, after residents raised the issue with them.

There’s more details and a sample email to send to councillors here.

Make your MP aware of these reports

There are an awful lot of facts and figures washing about at the moment.  But sometimes knowing who objects to a measure can be as important as why they object.  So, please make sure you local MP knows about these reports – you can copy and paste this information if you wish:

Citizens Advice (CA) literally works for the DWP, having had over £20 million from them to run the Help To Claim service. But it hasn’t stopped CA publishing Pathways To Poverty, a searing report on the cuts, which begins:  “By refusing to properly consult on its plan to cut billions from disability benefits, the government is choosing not to ask questions it doesn’t want the answers to. The cuts will have a devastating impact on disabled people (and their children), sending hundreds of thousands into poverty, and many more into deeper poverty.”

Money saving expert Martin Lewis is probably the most trusted figure in the UK when it comes to financial issues.  So, when his charity produces a report on the planned reforms headed “Lead shoes instead of a life ring”,  and says “We strongly urge the government to ditch these plans, which will cause misery and hardship for some of the most vulnerable people in society” you can be sure people will listen.

The Commons All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Poverty and Inequality is hugely dominated by Labour MPs.  Yet it has condemned the “sweeping cuts” in a report that argues that “These proposals won’t remove barriers to employment—they will add new ones by stripping people of the income they rely on to survive. “

The Commons work and pensions committee also has a Labour majority, yet their interim report asks for any changes to be delayed and warns that the proposals: “might not incentivise work, as the Government hopes, but rather push people deeper into poverty, worsen health, especially in more deprived areas, and move people further from the labour market, as evidence suggests has happened in the past with similar reforms.” 

And then there’s the DWP’s own opinion about its chances of moving disabled people into work. At 4pm on Friday 2 May 2025, on the eve of a bank holiday and on a day when the news was dominated by the results of the local elections, the DWP quietly buried two reports.

In “The Experience of Additional Work Coach Support” the DWP found that more time with a work coach improved mental well being for claimants with mental health issues, but had no effect where physical health conditions were concerned and that “Feeling meaningfully closer to work was an outcome for only a minority of those interviewed.”

 “Evaluation of the Employment and Health Discussion” found that employment and health discussions make claimant’s briefly feel more positive, but the solutions they produce don’t work and fail to address may of the barriers to work that disabled claimants actually face.  Yet the Green Paper argues that claimants will benefit from “a new support conversation” which will “enable people to get help early, providing access to more rapid and timely support.”

When so many respected organisations cast doubt on the Green Paper proposals, surely it’s time to pause the plans and carry out more research and consultation.

Don’t be fooled

Most importantly of all, don’t listen to Labour claims that the rebellion has collapsed, that’s just them trying to make their own backbenchers feel isolated and scared.  Instead, keep encouraging claimants to contact their MPs and also offer your own words of support to those MPs brave enough to openly declare they will not vote for Labour’s cuts.

https://www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/news/what-you-can-still-do-to-challenge-the-cuts

I’ve been so inspired by what I have seen from Scope and this community I wrote to my MP this morning. I thought it was essential and hope it has some positive impact because he’s supporting the changes 😩

My MP is Yvette Cooper, I have emailed her, i doubt I will get anything back.

If your MP is Richard Tice, hard luck, he hates disabled people