Spring Statement 2025: Labour MP warns of ‘mother of all rebellions’
A Labour MP has warned that Sir Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves could face the “mother of all rebellions” over welfare policy if they do not rethink cuts to disability benefits.
The Prime Minister and Chancellor could face having “a big rebellion on their hands” over the controversial move to balance the books, Richard Burgon, MP for Leeds East, has said.
Burgon, a former shadow justice secretary under Jeremy Corbyn, told Times Radio there were “plenty” of Labour MPs “right across the board” who are extremely concerned about Reeves’ £4.8bn squeeze on welfare announced at Wednesday’s Spring Statement.
The policy change is expected to hit around three million families on incapacity benefits, while 800,000 claimants will have reduced personal independence payments (PIP).
It also comes as new figures from the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) reveal that the number of children living in poverty in the UK has reached a new record high, with some 4.45m children in households in relative low income, in the year to March 2024.
This has increased from the previous record of 4.33m in the 12 months to March 2023, and is the highest figure since comparable records for the UK began in 2002-03.
Burgon told the broadcaster: “If the government doesn’t drop it, I’ll vote against it.
“Plenty of people right across the board are really concerned. Plenty of MPs raised their concerns in a statement in Parliament yesterday… but there are many more MPs than people think who are really concerned about this.”
Asked to estimate the size of a rebellion – if MPs were to vote against the government in large numbers – Burgon said: “It’s no exaggeration to say, if the government doesn’t rethink this policy in relation to disability benefits, I think it would be the mother of all rebellions.
“And the kind of rebellion of a scale I wouldn’t have thought, last July when we won the election, that we would see at all under the first term of this Labour government.”
He urged ministers to “think again”, and stressed: “There are some good things in the welfare reform bill, but this idea of saving £5bn and making it harder for disabled people to get their personal independence payments, it’s not a Labour approach.”
Other left-wing Labour MPs have also appeared to express discontent with the government.
Asked on Sky News whether there was “disappointment”, Norwich South MP Clive Lewis paused before saying: “I think some of us already knew there were some problems in terms of the lack of a plan and an ideology behind it, the lack of a strategy.
“But they won a massive majority, a massive mandate, and you have to give people a chance. I think we’re at the point now where people can see that this isn’t what we expected – what a lot of the public expected, what MPs expected – in that sense it is a disappointment.
“The question now is do we have the strength and the ability to change tack and do something with four years ahead of us where we can bring the British public with us.”
But Reeves said she is “absolutely certain” her welfare reforms will not push people into poverty, appearing to reject official warnings about their impact, as well as denying there will be further tax rises or spending cuts in the autumn – but not ruling them out entirely.
She told Sky News: “I am absolutely certain that our reforms, instead of pushing people into poverty, are going to get people into work. And we know that if you move from welfare into work, you are much less likely to be in poverty.
“That is our ambition, making people better off, not making people worse off, and also the welfare state will always be there for people who genuinely need it.”