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Vicky Foxcroft has resigned as a Labour whip in protest against plans to cut disability benefits, increasing the pressure on Sir Keir Starmer’s government as it faces the threat of a wider rebellion over the policy.
In a resignation letter to the prime minister, Foxcroft said that in a previous role as shadow minister for disabled people in 2020 she had seen that life for disabled people was “even tougher than I had imagined”.
Although Foxcroft supported the need to address the rising welfare bill, she believed “this could and should be done by supporting more disabled people into work”, the MP for Lewisham North said on Thursday.
“I do not believe that cuts to the personal independence payment [Pip] and the health element of universal credit should be part of the solution.”
Foxcroft’s move comes as ministers risk a rebellion by scores of MPs over the policy — a crucial part of welfare reforms aimed at slashing government spending — in a House of Commons vote in a fortnight’s time.
Foxcroft had “wrestled” with the question of whether to quit or whether to fight for change from the whips’ office.
“Sadly it now seems that we are not going to get the changes I desperately wanted to see,” she said. “I will not be able to do the job that is required of me and whip — or indeed vote — for reforms which include cuts to disabled people’s finances.”
Starmer is braced for the biggest rebellion against his administration when MPs vote on the Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill in the House of Commons on July 1.
More than 100 Labour MPs have already expressed concerns about the bill although it is not clear how many will defy the whips — or party enforcers — and vote against the government.
Starmer this week insisted the government would plough ahead with the reforms, designed both to save money but also to address the large number of people out of work in Britain.
Ministers first unveiled the plans to reform the welfare system in March. The changes are expected to save the government about £5bn a year primarily by scaling back the Pip disability benefits.
Those proposals could see the benefit completely taken away from some 800,000 people, many of whom need help washing themselves or using the toilet. In May, 42 Labour MPs signed a public letter warning Starmer that the changes were “impossible to support”.
Foxcroft’s departure is the second resignation by a senior figure in the Starmer government. Former international development minister Anneliese Dodds quit in February over plans to slash the aid budget.
