More than 120 Labour MPs were preparing to vote against the government’s welfare cuts in the Commons on Tuesday
Ruth Curtice, a former Treasury official how now runs the Resolution Foundation, a thinktank focusing on cost of living issues, told the Today programme that the welfare bill U-turn could cost the Treasury about £3bn a year. She explained:
The Institute for Fiscal Studies said [it would cost] £1.5bn yesterday on the Pip changes. I think it’s more like £3bn: you have the changes to Pip which cost £1.5bn to £2bn when you also take into account consequentials for things like carer’s allowance, but they’ve also said the freeze that they were going to introduce on universal credit health-related support will be undone and that will now rise in real terms and we estimate that will cost another £1bn.
Meg Hillier, who tabled the reasoned amendment backed by more than 120 Labour MPs that would have killed the UC and Pip bill (see 8.46am), told the Today programme that welfare bill debacle showed that Downing Street should have listened more to its backbenchers. She said:
I think there’s huge talent, experience and knowledge in parliament, and it’s important it’s better listened to, and I think that message has landed.
