Green Paper Related Discussions

I've just read that it's in about a month's time but they didn't give a date unfortunately.

https://forum.scope.org.uk/discussion/comment/1029629#Comment_1029629To be honest, there are so many different figures being bandied about that I would be hard pressed myself.

I've just heard though that three quarters of the Labour government majority in MPs that they got at the General Election are are objecting to the cuts in one way or the other. That's got to be good.

If you haven't read this article from ITV News from 3 days ago this is at least the most encouraging news of them all. Please watch the video too as it's even better than the article. 😊 Sorry about the awkward link but it does work.

https://www.itv.com/news/2025-05-16/government-considers-welfare-reform-concessions-as-labour-mps-threaten-to-revolt

Are Tories set to vote against Green Paper cuts?

News from Benefits and Work site

Most commentators have assumed that the Conservatives would always vote in favour of anything that resembled a benefits cut. But there now seems to be a possibility that the Tories are planning to support Labour rebels and vote against Labour’s Green Paper.

On 18 May, Conservative MP Helen Whately told the Standard: “Labour’s plans dodge the difficult decisions on welfare, leave more people out of work than they put in and will hit some of the nation’s poorest people.

“The sickness benefits bill is spiralling out of control and these rushed reforms will make things worse, not better.

“These plans are cruel, careless and clumsy. And it seems that even some of the people closest to Reeves agree with us, not her.”

What makes this total condemnation of the Green Paper particularly noteworthy is that Whately is the Conservative shadow secretary for work and pensions.  It seems unlikely that she would have been so outspoken in her criticism without party approval.

It is clear that the rebellion on Labour’s back benches has been growing in the two months since the Green Paper was published.

On 1 April, the Labour List website published the names of 27 MPs who said they would rebel against the government and 15 more who had expressed opposition to the Green Paper.

On 8 May, 42 Labour MPs wrote to the prime minister to say the cuts were impossible to support.

On 15 May, ITV reported that 50 Labour MPs were set to rebel, including the 42 who had signed the original letter.  100 MPs had also signed a private letter to Starmer urging the government to delay the changes and rethink its proposals. At least 6 MPs signed both letters.

Which suggests that somewhere in the region of 130 Labour MPs oppose the cuts, though there is no suggestion they would all vote against them.

The labour leadership are said to be considering a number of ways to buy off the rebels.  These include changes to the winter fuel payment means-test, changes to the two child limit or changes to the benefits cap. 

The idea will be to tell rebel MPs that the government doesn’t have the cash help these groups and also to drop its Green Paper cuts.

Whether this is a pitch that will work, remains to be seen.

But there seems to be at least a possibility that the Conservatives are now positioning themselves to take advantage of Labour’s disarray.

https://www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/news/are-tories-set-to-vote-against-green-paper-cuts

Making my way through the list Labour MPs that are voting for the cuts, emailing them all. They are in Government to help run the country and look out for the British People. They have mentally abused us for weeks upon weeks. And they are okay that we will all suffer badly through their decision.

If they vote I hope they will never hold a seat in Government again as we won't forget 👍

Hi all

Looking at the benefits and work site, it seems more and more people are having paper based successful claims.

I am hoping that mine will be paper based when the get round to it.

I think that our situation has blown up way beyond WFA and the child benefit cap. From what I've read disabled people and DPOs and many more have done a great job of getting MPs informed before the vote.

The reaction from MPs is of disgust that this is happening to the Labour Party and saying that the leadership should not be pushing these poisonous reforms on them. Many are wondering what on earth they came into politics for if they are expected to back something as damaging as this to vulnerable claiments and the reputation of the Labour Party.

They say that the rest of what they are trying to do in government is being overshadowed by the welfare cuts. Especially as they are very unhappy about how they have been mislead by the leadership and expected to vote with so little correct information about it and months before the impact assessment from the OBR which is due in October.

We have been ignored for years and have got used to this situation. The governments of the past took our support off us a bit at a time. This one has taken it all in one go so has made a big difference to how seriously it's being taken. Plus that the government is a Labour one now who are not supposed to back deeply regressive polices like this, turning its back on it's voters.

Only the mobility component of PIP has not been mentioned and in the latest of three emails to my MP (Although the Conservatives are not our friend he's actually sent me some decent replies! 😮) I have pointed out that once our daily living disappears, the DWP will soon question the eligibility to the mobility, so every bit of our support will go. 😡

I could be wrong but I think that we have got more to be optimistic about than we know. 👍