Conservative MPs are still worried about the removal of the £20-a-week uplift to Universal Credit this coming October. Two of them — Peter Aldous and John Stevenson — have written to Boris Johnson to urge him not to press ahead with the cut, which will restore the benefit back to its pre-pandemic levels. The pair argue that the extra £20, while expensive, is ‘one of our best legacies from the pandemic’.
Perhaps some of the MPs like Aldous and Stevenson who were in parliament then remember how difficult it was to defend a policy that didn’t make much sense
They’re not the first within the party to try to stop this cut going ahead. Indeed, a group of former Tory welfare secretaries have tried. The current Work and Pensions Secretary, Therese Coffey, had a well-reported stand-off with Chancellor Rishi Sunak earlier this year. But I understand that as far as the Treasury is concerned, the decision has been taken to go ahead with the cut and the war on this front is over.
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