KEIR Starmer has been urged to stop referring to his plans to slash the benefits budget by billions as being “moral”.
Mother of the House Diane Abbott, so called because she is the longest-serving female MP in the Commons, told the Prime Minister “there is nothing moral” about taking an axe to the social security net.
Earlier this week, Starmer’s spokesman had defended Labour’s swingeing cuts to the benefits system, which the Government hopes will trim £5 billion from the welfare budget, by saying there was a “moral” case for cuts.
During Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday, Abbott said: “Most members of this House will be aware that the welfare system can be a nightmare to navigate and does indeed need reform.
“But could we have less of this rhetoric about [the Prime Minister’s] £5 billion package of disability benefit so-called reform being ‘moral’? There is nothing moral about cutting benefits for what may be up to a million people.
Labour grandee Diane Abbott tore into UK Government's disability cuts at PMQs :speaking_head_in_silhouette:'This is not about morality, this is about the Treasury's wish to balance the books on the back of the most vulnerable' pic.twitter.com/VFzYHcF2za
— The National (@ScotNational) March 19, 2025
“This is not about morality, this is about the Treasury’s wish to balance the country’s books on the back of the most vulnerable and poor people in this society.”
Starmer said Abbott was a “passionate advocate” on the benefits issue and said he agreed that the current system was “broken”.
But he added that he thought it was a “moral issue” that there were around one million young people in the UK not in work, education or training, something he said made it “incredibly difficult [for them] ever to get out of that level of dependency”.
Starmer added: “That cuts across the opportunity and aspiration that is the root of my values and Labour values about how we take working people forward. So I do see it as a moral issue, I’m not going to turn away from that. I am genuinely shocked that a million people, young people are in that position and I’m not prepared to shrug my shoulders and walk past it.”
