Labour MPs in this region are angry and frustrated about the actions of their own government
19:55, 01 Jul 2025Updated 20:01, 01 Jul 2025
Paula Barker, Labour MP for Wavertree(Image: Daily Mirror)
Labour MPs in Merseyside have blasted their own ‘shambolic’ government after chaotic scenes in the House of Commons over controversial cuts to welfare payments. MPs in Parliament today voted to approve the government’s plans – but only after huge last minute concessions and amid a significant rebellion from Labour MPs.
The government’s original bill aimed to reduce the number of people who would qualify for the personal independence payment (PIP) – paid to disabled and sick people – and to cut the health-related element of universal credit (UC) – with planned savings of £5bn a year.
But facing a huge rebellion from its own MPs and a likely Commons defeat, the government made changes to the bill earlier this week, which will mean that current PIP claimants will keep their benefits as they are, with the new stricter eligibility rules only set to come in for new claimants – and those currently receiving the health element of UC now seeing their benefits rise with inflation.
While this won over some rebels, there was still plenty of mutiny in the Labour ranks heading into tonight’s vote and less than a couple of hour’s before the final vote tonight, the government offered further concessions.
The latest change to the bill will mean that there will be no changes to the PIP eligibility in November next year – as had been planned.
Instead the government will wait for the conclusions of a review being led by Work and Pensions Minister Stephen Timms before setting out its plans.
Liverpool Walton Member of Parliament Dan Carden
This latest offer was met with derision by Liverpool Wavertree MP Paula Barker, who was one of six Liverpool City Region Labour MPs to vote against the government’s plans.
The others rebels included Ian Byrne (West Derby), Peter Dowd (Bootle), Kim Johnson (Riverside), Marie Rimmer (St Helens South and Whiston) Derek Twigg (Widnes and Halewood).
In response to the final offer announced by government just before the vote this evening, Ms Barker told the Commons that just like its promises to bring in a Hillsborough Law, the government’s offer was “not worth the paper it is written on.” Ms Barker blasted the “incoherent and shambolic nature of this process”.
Liverpool Walton MP Dan Carden agreed with that description of the process. He told the ECHO: “Today has been shambolic. On the basis that the bill before Parliament is now fundamentally different to the government’s stated aims, it defies logic to vote either way on it today.”
Confirming he had abstained this evening, Mr Carden said he welcomed that the government had ‘conceded and will no longer make changes to PIP until after the Timms Review has concluded in 2026 and that this will now be done in full consultation with disability charities.”
In his speech in the Commons today, Mr Carden described the situation as a “political mess”, adding: “We say we want to win the support of working class communities and yet the people I represent in the most deprived communities in the country don’t yet feel that the government is on their side.
“They felt the winter fuel cut was an attack on them and they think taking money off physically disabled people who can’t wash themselves is plainly wrong.”
Earlier Ian Byrne, the Labour MP for West Derby, a leading critic of the government’s bill said: “Disabled people in my consistency tell me of feeling abandoned, of feeling punished and perhaps most heartbreakingly, of believing that a Labour government, their Labour government, after 14 years of Tory austerity and attacks, Covid and the cost of living crisis, will protect them. That belief is now being shattered.
“I ask myself, how can I look them in the eye and tell them the wrong? Because the truth is, this Bill is an absolute shambles. It’s immoral. It’s being rewritten on the fly. Policies affecting millions and millions of disabled lives are being made up as we go within this chamber within the last couple of hours.”