Exclusive: Leading rebels say they have been promised significant changes to planned cuts which could help bill avoid defeat
Keir Starmer has offered Labour MPs “massive concessions” on his controversial welfare bill in a move that has won over key rebels and is likely to have saved the prime minister from a damaging Commons defeat next week.
Leading MPs said they had been promised significant changes, which will cost the government several billion pounds over the next few years but would shore up the prime minister’s precarious authority.
The compromises on the planned cuts, which are understood to include applying the changes only to new claimants and further consultation on the most controversial cuts to disability benefits, were offered during a tense day of talks with Downing Street.
They mark a big U-turn from Starmer, who had said for weeks he would not change course, but was forced to back down after more than 120 Labour MPs threatened to kill the bill. One frontbencher had already quit over the plans, while others were understood to be prepared to do so if agreement had not been reached.
