Keir Starmer battles to save disability benefit cuts - as Labour rebellion grows

Keir Starmer is battling to save controversial welfare cuts - as more Labour MPs joined a rebellion.

The Prime Minister and Deputy PM Angela Rayner both insisted a crunch vote will go ahead on the reforms next week - despite 123 MPs signing an amendment that would torpedo the plans.

In a sign of the panic at the top of government ministers have been locked in talks attempting to persuade rebels to back down. The number of rebels is enough to wipe out the Labour government's majority in the Commons and has led to speculation the vote could be pulled.

But Mr Starmer told reporters at the NATO summit in The Hague: "There will be a vote, we will press ahead with the reforms." He also appeared to play down the rebellion, saying there are always "noises off". He told The Mirror: "Much like we did on health, we created the health service, and now we have to ensure it's fit for the future. The same with welfare. That is a progressive argument, that is a Labour argument and it's the right argument to make."

Stepping in for Mr Starmer at Prime Minister's Questions, Ms Angela Rayner told MPs: "We will go ahead on Tuesday." And social security minister Sir Stephen Timms said he was "looking forward to the debate" next week as he appeared at the Work and Pensions Committee.

But rebels appeared defiant on Wednesday. Labour MP for Liverpool West Derby, Ian Byrne, told The Mirror the row will result in a "political car crash". He said: "It’s a continuation of the policy of not listening to backbench MPs about what’s happening on the ground in their constituency, a re-run of the winter fuel playbook and we will end up with the same political car crash. When will the Government learn?"

The Labour MP Cat Eccles - elected just last year - suggested she would be willing to lose the whip to vote against the government next week. She told Times Radio: "We [the government] are walking through a lobby with the intention of taking the money away from our most vulnerable residents with no safety net to catch them."

Rebel MP Helen Hayes dismissed the idea next week's welfare vote is a confidence vote in the government, telling the BBC: "That is absolutely not the case. After whatever happens on Tuesday next week, the government, the PM, will still have a very large working majority in Parliament.

"This is not how a confidence vote takes place and if there was to be a confidence vote the Prime Minister would win that hands down with no dissent from the Labour benches. This is a disagreement with the government about the impact of reforms we are being asked to vote on next week."

On Tuesday evening the Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, urged ministers to think again. He said: "When the PLP [Parliamentary Labour Party] delivers its collective wisdom in such numbers, it is invariably right. And it is right on this. I would say to the government, 'listen to the PLP on this'."

The Trades Union Congress (TUC) general secretary Paul Nowak also urged the government to "pause and rethink their welfare reform". "Let’s get this right - rather than rush through reform - & build a welfare system that’s fit for purpose," he said.

READ MORE: Join our Mirror politics WhatsApp group to get the latest updates from Westminster