Is Rachel Revees tough enough to cut disability benefits?

There are, as Rachel Reeves keeps telling us, some tough choices to be made. Whether she is personally tough enough to make them is another matter. It seems as if the government is already retreating on proposed plans to freeze Personal Independence Payments (PIP) in the Spring statement in ten days’ time. A putative backbench rebellion has grown in size to a level at which even a government with a majority of 160 cannot be sure of success. There were also rumoured threats of ministerial resignations.

It shouldn’t really come as a surprise. Many Labour MPs have it in their heads that they were elected to protect the poor and needy from heartless Tory cuts. They were hardly going to take kindly to a Labour Chancellor metaphorically kicking away the crutches of the disabled. Even the Conservatives pulled back from cutting PIP, the bill for which has consequently been allowed to grow unchecked to £18 billion a year – and is projected to reach £34 billion by 2029-30.