Labour were forced to abandon the PIP four point rule in the final hour of today’s debate, in order to save the Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill.
In the end, the bill passed its second reading with a majority of 75, with 335 voting in favour and 260 against. 49 Labour MPs rebelled and voted against the bill. You can see a full list of the votes here
This means that the 4-point PIP rule is effectively dead after Labour made its biggest concession yet.
Little more than an hour before today’s debate ended and voting began, Timms told the House:
"I can announce that we are going to remove the clause five from the bill at committee, that we will move straight to the wider review, sometimes referred to as the Timms review, and only make changes to Pip eligibility, activities and descriptors following that review."
Clause 5 is the 4-point rule.
It will no longer appear in the bill when amendments are made next week.
This means that the Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill no longer has anything to do with Personal Independence Payment.
The main purpose of the bill is now to take money from future recipients of the UC health element, though current claimants will not be affected, and to introduce the severe conditions criteria.
The cut to the UC health element, in itself, should have been enough for MPs to vote the bill down, but it was an issue that received much less attention.
The Timms review will now decide the future of PIP. And if, as Labour have promised, the review is genuinely coproduced with disabled people there is very little chance of the 4-point rule ever happening.
There is undoubtedly still danger ahead, however. Timms was asked twice if the changes to PIP made by the review would be put into primary or secondary legislation, Timms said that would depend on the result of the review.
But, if the government chooses to put any changes in secondary legislation, MPs would not be able to amend them and would not be given a vote on them, unless via arcane parliamentary procedure. This may be a battleground for the third reading next week.
Nonetheless, as things stand, an enormous amount of distress has been caused to millions of disabled claimants, only to end up with a bill that has entirely abandoned its primary aim.
For Timms, Kendall and Reeves, however brave a face they put on it, today has been an enormous humiliation. For campaigners, facing a government with a massive majority and an extraordinary degree of arrogance, it has been a remarkable – though by no means total - victory.
