Labour has tried to calm backbench nerves over its benefits changes by promising £1 billion of extra funding per year by the end of the parliament to support the entry to work of health-related benefits claimants. Not that the money is coming from anywhere…
By 2028-29 only £400 million is penned in to be paid out in the Spending Review. Which implies it will rise by £600 million in the one subsequent year…
The DWP budget is set to rise at 0.4% per year over the next three years – it is meant to be dishing out that conciliatory support at the same time. There are no details on what the job support will look like and the OBR will need to be convinced that growth will be boosted enough to not require extra borrowing. This is high stakes – briefings over the weekend that up to a dozen ministers are set to resign over the welfare changes are heaping pressure on Downing Street…
Work and pensions secretary Liz Kendall is due to address the Parliamentary Labour Party at tonight’s Monday meeting. Around 80 backbenchers said last month they would vote against the bill. Backbenchers may have questions about the funding black hole here…
Starmer spoke to Nick Robinson for the Today Programme on Polanski’s criticism of the Golders Green police officers:
“I want everybody just to imagine what it might be like. You’re trying to arrest someone who has already attacked two people and has no regard for life. We know that tasers were fired. I know from my own experience with the police, that there are only two shots in a taser, and once you’ve shot them, there’s nothing left. There’s a guy on the ground, he’s got a rucksack on. And I don’t know what was going through the mind of those officers, but if I was there, I’d be thinking, he’s going to detonate something. He’s going to blow me up and everybody around here. In those circumstances, I think you can quite see why what could have gone through their mind is, we need to do whatever we can to disable this guy…
Now, when I then see Zack Polanski come out and retweet or support a criticism of that, I think it’s disgraceful… He’s not fit to lead any political party.”