Green Paper Related Discussions

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14835223/Labour-rebels-Left-wing-socialist-party-welfare-cuts.html

Sir Keir Starmer faces the threat of a new left-wing 'real socialist' party amid mounting anger from Labour backbenchers over controversial welfare cuts.

The Mail on Sunday has learnt that disaffected Labour backbenchers are already being approached to consider joining a new 'radical Left' political movement.

Sources said that to inflict maximum damage on Sir Keir, the proposed new party – master-minded by supporters of ex-Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn - could be launched during Labour's national conference this Autumn.

The plans emerged amid forecasts that so angry are Labour backbenchers at their Government's plan to slash disability benefits, that scores of MPs could refuse to back it at next month's crucial Commons vote.

Talk of the new party also comes just days after Mr Corbyn – who now sits as an Independent MP – said he was 'determined there will be, in short time, a strong alternative democratic socialist, left-wing voice that brings people together'.

However, it is understood that Mr Corbyn himself may not himself lead the new party, with sources suggesting that role should go to a younger figure such as Coventry South MP Zarah Sultana, currently suspended from the Parliamentary part for voting to scrap the two-child benefit cap.

The spectre of a break-away left-wing movement comes with Sir Keir potentially facing the biggest rebellion of his premiership so far over plans which could mean cutting personal independence payments (PIP), the main disability payment in England and Wales, for about 800,000 people.

So worried is Sir Keir that Labour whips have reportedly threatened that anyone who simply abstained would never get a ministerial job while MPs voting against would lose the Party whip.

Last night, one senior Labour MP said those reports were 'rubbish' and cautioned that if the revolt was huge, it would not be possible to suspend '100 or so MPs'.

Even moderate backbenchers have privately vented their anger at the cuts while Left-winger Andy McDonald has branded the proposals 'a huge attack on the incomes of disabled people'.

However, the Daily Mail highlighted last week how spending on sickness benefits was on course to rocket by £18 billion a year to reach £70 billion by the next general election if nothing was done to trim the bill.

Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall has warned that the country's benefits system faced collapse if costs continued to escalate.

Long-mooted plans for the new party are understood to have accelerated in the last few weeks amid mounting anger among Labour backbenchers over government policy, including the now-abandoned decision to scrap Winter Fuel payments for many pensioners and the proposed disability benefit cuts.

And last weekend, Mr Corbyn, already part of a five-strong 'Independent Alliance' group at Westminster, appeared to acknowledge that people's frustration that 'we didn't found a new political party' would soon be answered.

Sources close to the ex-Labour leader also told this newspaper that there were now 'very, very active discussions' about setting up the new movement.

However, they dismissed reports that the party would be called 'Arise' after a former Corbyn aide registered such a party with the Electoral Commission just over a week ago.

Last night, Starmer allies played down any threat from such a new party, suggesting 'a couple of ' current Labour MPs were more likely to defect to the Greens than join a Corbynsta-style group.

But one longstanding Labour MP said: 'It's all very well for Starmer's acolytes to dismiss the threat of a proper socialist party but the PM is playing with fire.

'After the winter fuel fiasco and now this attack on disability benefits, he's leaving a vacuum on the Left of British politics and someone's going to fill it.' 

Mr Corbyn was originally suspended from Labour in 2020 after claiming the scale of antisemitism in the party had been overstated and later expelled for standing as an Independent against an official Labour candidate.

I read elsewhere that the rebels said let Starmer take away the whip and we’ll just start another party . I really think if he continues he could finish Labour off for good

Hi chiarieds,

Belletango just posted this and it explains what the severe criteria means. They’re making a distinction between getting lcwra and getting the award under the new criteria which is the descriptor must be met constantly. As you say how can they show you fit the criteria constantly? I get leg pains every day , wake up with it ( fibromyalgia) and go to sleep with it . In between it fluctuates due to pain medication and if I’m able to go outside. If I do go out I won’t go out again for days or more due to worsening symptoms so how can that be proven by me ? I can’t see how anyone can fit this criteria as we can’t have the same level of symptoms 24/7 . Then of course there’s pain meds , does that mean you won’t fit the criteria? Reading it it seems to me that it will be more brutal than the current 10 Year light touch as this as Kendall says will be non negotiable so an assessor won’t be able to use their discretion and award it . I think they’ve put this out there to look good but actually they’ll just scrap the long awards while pretending they are replacing them with the severe category that no one can pass . I’ll post a couple of the screenshots that bellatango posted earlier. I hope I’m wrong on this .

I hoe they don’t remove the mobility as although I have a lot of different symptoms and need to rest most of the time there’s no descriptor for pain or fatigue. So I couldn’t even work from home as I couldn’t concentrate anyway and I can’t sit in a chair for periods of time .

Me too. Mobility isn't just walking the length if double-decker buses. It's about getting around our homes safely despite extreme pain.

About the severe criteria linked to above from Benefits and Work, I see there's a person commenting who is thinking like myself; the LCWRA criteria needs to always be met + you have a NHS diagnosed disorder from which you're unlikely to improve (& that the wording in the legislature needs clarifying). The person commenting is called John.

I'm going to mention this use of the word 'constant' here when I email a response about the Govt's Green Paper (as I'm not going to answer the few things they are actually consulting about).

The Tories were considering removing the mobility part of LCWRA, but this isn't happening with these proposals by Labour.

I think the emphasis on NHS diagnosis is very dangerous with respect to both LCWRA and any future changes to PIP.

A valid PIP claim never needed a diagnosis though obviously one has to present solid evidence. Some people never have a diagnosis because their conditions are very rare. Other wait many years for the same reason. (I saw multiple consultants before getting diagnosed at an NHS centre of excellence.) Others have private diagnoses. As long as a diagnosis is not from a local Witch Doctor it ought not to matter. The NHS only business is troubling.

ESA50/ UC50/ PIP1 forms all query our medications. What if GP-recommended supplements are paid for privately? Perhaps they won’t count any more.

Again, a claim form asks about our use of aids and appliances. The stress on the NHS hints that only aids proscribed by an NHS OT or physio might be taken into consideration as opposed to the many things claimants purchase for themselves out of PIP or other income.