UK passes welfare reforms after last-minute concessions for rebel MPs

The hollow victory is a major blow to Sir Keir’s authority as he approaches one year in office, with 49 Labour rebel MPs voting against the government’s welfare bill.

The result is a major blow to Sir Keir’s authority as he approaches one year in office. Picture: Carl Court/Getty Images

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has won a key vote in parliament on his plans to trim welfare spending, but only after diluting the measures to ease intense opposition from within his own party.

In something of a hollow victory, the bill passed its first big House of Commons hurdle by 335 votes to 260 after the government appeased Labour Party rebels by softening and delaying cuts to welfare benefits for disabled people.

A total of 49 rebel Labour politicians voted against the government’s welfare bill.

The result is a major blow to Sir Keir’s authority as he approaches one year in office, reckoning with a sluggish economy and rock-bottom approval ratings.

It’s a long way from the landslide election victory he won on July 4, 2024, when Sir Keir’s Labour Party took 412 of the 650 seats in the House of Commons to end 14 years of Conservative government.

In the past 12 months, Sir Keir has navigated the rapids of a turbulent world, winning praise for rallying international support for Ukraine and persuading US President Donald Trump to sign a trade deal easing tariffs on UK goods.

But at home his agenda is on the rocks, as he struggles to convince British voters — and his own party — that his government is delivering the change that it promised.

John Curtice, a political scientist at the University of Strathclyde, said that Starmer has had “the worst start for any newly elected prime minister.”

Rebellion over welfare reform

Reforming Britain’s ballooning welfare system – and cutting the cost – was a key pledge by Sir Keir, but an attempt to trim disability benefits caused consternation among Labour politicians.

Many baulked at plans to raise the threshold for the payments by requiring a more severe physical or mental disability, a move the Institute for Fiscal Studies think tank estimated would cut the income of 3.2 million people by 2030.

After more than 120 Labour MPs said they would vote against the bill — more than enough to defeat it — the government offered concessions, including a guarantee that no one currently getting benefits will be affected by the change.

This is an utter capitulation. Labour's welfare bill is now a TOTAL waste of time. It effectively saves £0, helps no one into work, and does NOT control spending.

It’s pointless. They should bin it, do their homework, and come back with something serious. Starmer cannot govern. https://t.co/fJJ78lPkX0

— Kemi Badenoch (@KemiBadenoch) July 1, 2025

But while some rebels backed down, others maintained their opposition, forcing the government to offer a further concession less than two hours before the Tuesday evening vote. Ministers pledged that changes to benefits would not be made until after a review, carried out with the help of disability groups.

That came after a string of Labour MPs spoke against the bill in parliament.

One, Rachel Maskell, called the cuts “Dickensian.” “They are far from what this Labour Party is for: a party to protect the poor,” she said.

People take part in a protest against disability welfare cuts in London on Monday. Picture: Carl Court/Getty Images

The welfare U-turn was the third time in a few weeks that the government has reversed course on a policy under pressure. In May, it dropped a plan to end winter home heating subsidies for millions of retirees. In June, Sir Keir announced a national inquiry into organised child sexual abuse, something he was pressured to do by opposition politicians — and Elon Musk.

“It’s a failure of leadership for a prime minister with such a big majority to not be able to get their agenda through,” said Rob Ford, professor of politics at the University of Manchester.

Professor Ford said the government had forgotten “the basic Lyndon Johnson principle of politics. First rule of politics: You need to know how to count.”

The U-turns also make it harder for the government to find money to invest in public services without raising taxes. The government estimated that its welfare reforms would save 5 billion pounds ($10.5 billion) a year from a welfare bill that has soared since the COVID-19 pandemic. After the concessions, it’s unclear whether it will save any money at all.