A sitting Labour MP – though possibly not for much longer - has launched a petition against his own party’s benefits cuts.

Richard Burgon, Labour MP for Leeds east since 2015 and a shadow minister under Jeremy Corbyn, started the petition four days ago on the change.org platform.  It calls for the Green Paper benefits cuts to be axed and replaced by a wealth tax.  It reads:

This petition, demanding a Wealth Tax instead of devastating cuts to disability support, will be presented in the House of Commons before any votes on welfare cuts.

We oppose the Government’s plan to balance the books by targeting disabled people and the most disadvantaged in our society.

Slashing disability benefits instead of taxing extreme wealth is a political choice—and it is the wrong choice.

Instead, we believe that the very wealthiest should be made to pay their fair share.

A 2% Wealth Tax on assets over £10 million could raise up to £24 billion per year. That’s far more than the £5 billion the Government claims it will “save” by cutting key financial support for disabled people.

We call on the Government to abandon these cruel cuts and, instead of punishing the poorest, to implement a Wealth tax on the very wealthiest.

By this morning it had gathered 18,000 signatures.

You can sign Richard Burgon’s petition against benefits cuts here

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  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    · 15 days ago
    I wrote to my Labour MP about disability cuts and got no response.  I have never voted Labour and never will, especially after Starmer saying he will give tax cuts to Bezos & Musk etc.  it is absolutely disgusting.  The government should be stopped from claiming all their expenses to start with.  The government should on about it being public money well so is the money the claim but don’t give a monkeys about it
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    · 15 days ago
    My MPS answer was waffle 🧇 . I have written to the all parliamentary group as a result of reading this newsletter.


    As the all Parliamentary group on M E I would like to draw your attention to the devastating effect it will have on people with this condition if benefits are cut.

     If people are not well enough to work and jobs are not available for people who can only work intermittently and unreliably due to their condition this will just mean health conditions worsening.

    Without being able to pay for care to wash and dress people will stay dirty and in night clothes. Without being able to pay carers to help with food preparation people will survive on an unhealthy diet for example just cereal. If care cannot be afforded the commode remains unempited. 

    Without care pain worsens as the patient cannot pace properly and is forced to endure activities beyond their energy envelope worsening their condition.


    This will be a false economy when people end up hospitalized it will cost the country far more than maintaining welfare for disabled people.


    I expect better from a Labour government. I urge all in this group to vote against the welfare cuts ✂️ 


    There are other ways to make up for the shortfall in the finances.


    I look forward to hearing from you


     yours sincerely

     



    Sent from my Galaxy


  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    · 15 days ago
    I think most people know there will be many innocent victims if these cuts happen. Most would agree that people who are claiming benefits when they shouldn't, should be stopped. However, that take a lot of time and manpower so we get these proposals instead.
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    · 15 days ago
    I wrote to my MP Steve Darling in Torquay, but have had no response yet, will have to try again. 
    Also, I've signed and shared the petition. 
    I just terrified of what they are going to do to me when I have to migrate from ESA to UC this year, it couldn't be a worse climate of hatred towards long term sick & disabled.  And to think I voted for them, well, never again. 
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    · 18 days ago
    I wrote to my MP Derek Twigg. He replied with the obligatory generic email; he supports the cuts! I replied on how disappointed I am in him! I have let all my family and friends know, he doesn't care about his constituents! 
    • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
      · 17 days ago
      @Colette These Labour MPs are all going lose their seats come the next General Election. We heard Rachel Reeves on the radio + that woman has let the power go straight to her head: She was boasting about all the power she has got now. Her words were we have got the power to do what we want + no one can say anything + apparently the vote at the last election, confirms not 1 person even disagrees with her view. Apparently according to her the Labour MPs who  disagree are the likes  of John Mcdowell who apparently are not Labour MPs. I think that will come as news to John Mcdowell who has always been associated with Labour, he was under Jeremy Corbin as shadow Chancellor. My partner thinks in May during the local elections those results are going to frighten a lot of Labour MPs + it will wake them up  + make them question why they lost + it might make a few more Labour MPs vote against the disability cuts.
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    · 21 days ago
    I also have written to my mp with information about it it will affect me personally, losing basically all if our income and how nothing about my disability will change so I still can't work to replace lost pip and carers, it's absolutely mad what they're trying to do,they will kill many if these policies go ahead 
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    · 22 days ago
    I have today written to my M.P. regarding the welfare bill.
    I will post his response......
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    · 22 days ago
    why not a parliamentary petition? 
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      · 9 days ago
      @Lynn Oldfield I just found that petition and signed it too. the whole idea this government has come up with is stupid. The DWP has already agreed the disabled people are disabled + very limited to work and hence agreeing they need the benefits. Then this ludicrous incompetent government led by kier Stammer and Rachel Reeves comes up with a brilliant idea to increase the poverty population and steal the last bit of independence and dignity from the most vulnerable.  Yes there are places this government could look to make cuts, how about starting on MPs over generous expenses? Such as that MP being able to claim £900 to keep her dog with her.  How many other politicians are doing this? Kier Stammer government has passed a law to do nothing short of snoop into the bank accounts of pensioners and disabled. This government seems so keen to snoop in bank accounts, why doesn't it now pass a law to allow the general public to inspect the bank accounts  of our politicians all sitting in Westminster and particularly the bank accounts of the Prime Minister and chancellor?    
    • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
      · 10 days ago
      @Al A parliamentary petition against these cruel inhumane welfare cuts has just been launched. Just signed it and there's just short of 10, 000 signatures.  
      It's on the parliament petition website..Please sign and share it you can.  Thankyou! 
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    · 23 days ago
    This Labour government is the worst government we've had in targeting against the pensioners and disabled people and they are worse than the last conservative government. Also, the Prime Minister and the Chancellor are an absolute disgrace to the labour movement and they are a callous, disgusting and inhumane government towards pensioners and the disabled. This is the last time Labour will be in power because we all won't forget what they have done in the next general election.
    • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
      · 8 days ago
      @Randolph Allman They are also two faced too. Any political party that intended to make cuts to disability payments should have been honest + put it in their election manifesto last year + let the public be aware of it. The only political party had this in their manifesto were the Tories only.  Labour has totally ignored  its own manifesto promises last year. 
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    · 23 days ago
    "around 340,000 additional people pushed into poverty." - New Economics Foundation

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    · 23 days ago
    Some of the reasons why Keir Starmer and Co. do not seem to back off from their dreadful changes are as follows:

    * They're backed by people like T. Blair, G. Brown, D. Blunkett, etc., behind the curtain.

    * They're supported by the Blairites in the party. 

    * Current Labour is full of newbies who seemingly care about their jobs more than anything else.

    * They know the Cons would support their evil benefit cuts.

    *  They've a huge majority at the Commons more than enough to crush any rebellion.

    * They're hiding behind their misleading rhetoric of supporting people into work.

    * The fact that people on benefits is a soft target.
    • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
      · 13 days ago
      @Scorpion Well, come the next General Election, I doubt Blair will be able to help them, the Labour Party will be unelectable. The majority of Labour MPs will lose their seats. When are the Labour back benches going to wake up to the damage Rachel Reeves  + Stammer are doing to the party? 

      As soon as Labour won the Election last year, the 1st thing Rachel Reeves  did was mug the pensioners of their winter fuel allowance + then every front bencher including Stammer was busy shopping for free gifts, they couldn't  get enough of them. Rachel Reeves is still taking free gifts. Now the same party are busy mugging the disabled of their PIP money. What is Labour planning on doing next, raiding the orphanage?  
    • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
      · 20 days ago
      @Scorpion Any MP who votes in favour of these reforms will be in breach of the parliamentary code of conduct as far as I’m concerned. Page 2 1d says ‘the purpose of the code is to ensure all Members can and do speak and act without fear or favour’. Everything I’m hearing suggests MP’s are afraid to speak out for fear of consequences for their own careers. They are being pressured to vote a certain way. Same happened with the pensioners and the winter fuel allowances. They ought to be held accountable. 
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      · 23 days ago
      @Scorpion The only thing that can stop this is legal challenge.
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    · 23 days ago
    Richard Burgon, being willing to take a stand against these cuts, is one of the few Labour MPs with a backbone.  
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    · 23 days ago
    Now they are doing an annual National Policy Forum consultation:


    There's a link in there to contribute.  

    Claiming:

    "The hard work of the National Policy Forum in the years before the 2024 election helped us deliver a manifesto that was at the heart of our historic election win".

    "And now the Labour Government is getting on with delivering that manifesto to deliver renewal for our country and security for working people through our Plan for Change".  

    "This is the most ambitious yet honest programme for government in a generation" but going on about "working people" and all their amazing achievements so far.

    Not a single mention of disabled people or the disgusting plans they have on welfare.  Plunging disabled people, pensioners and children into further poverty.  Their manifesto didn't include any of that did it.

    Makes me sick and enraged!

    Everyone, individuals, charities and  DPO's should bombard their consultation over the welfare reform plans.
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    · 23 days ago
    Send 'Richard Burgons petition' link to your MP and asked them to sign it.

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    · 23 days ago
    the hundreds of new mp's will not help him or us, wont rock there new jobs.
    • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
      · 20 days ago
      @DD Those MPs won't have a job after the next General Election. The Labour Party is fast becoming unelectable. It looks like Rachel Reeves is on a 1 woman mission to destroy the Labour Party. We read in a newspaper that Angela Raynor, Lucy Powell + Ed Millband from the front benches have threatened to resign if these cuts happen. Well, if Angela Raynor resigns that will be the end of Kier Stammer. A bookies has given a 3-1 chance that both Rachel Reeves + Stammer will both be gone before then end of this year.
    • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
      · 21 days ago
      @DD Doesn't mean we shouldn't make them squirm a bit - letting them know we are watching how they vote, responding to the "consultation", writing to them and showing up at constituency surgeries.  I agree that the new mps don't want to rock the boat and they probably owe their selection to chicanery of Party management as much as (if not more than) to the local CLPs   I don't know about other new Labour MPs but I know my local one won on a small majority in a constituency that has been blue for a long time so I guess he's got a choice as to which way he wants to lose his parliamentary career over this; defy Keith and be consigned to to the back benches at least until a change of leader or lose his seat in the next GE.  Depends how ambitious he is I suppose.
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    · 24 days ago
    I knew the Labour government would do this to vulnerable people. 
    They conned people for there vote then they
    They took off us…
    Please don’t ever vote for them again, when they are up for election again will promise us the world:) 
    And do exactly the same again.
    To people who need it.

    I am up for review for my pip soon, so scared
    That the will stop it.

    Labour government will not take care of us
    When we are vulnerable 
    Keir Starmer is a disgrace to the ordinary people of Britain.
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    · 24 days ago
    Hello all, ironic that I have just received my letter from the DWP informing me of the uprate to PIP.

    Have done research: those born before 6 April 1948, and were receiving DLA are still on DLA. As many members of this forum will know there were three tiers for daily living, currently the lowest level (abolished under PIP) of daily living will be £29.20 per week under the uprate 

    This would equate to £1518.40. Add standard mobility, for example, and the total comes to £3036.80 per year. Would this be a reasonable compromise for those, like me, who get two points on a range of daily living activities? It's still a cut, but nothing like as calamitous as what is being proposed.

    Any thoughts?
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      · 4 days ago
      @Ilo It is probably a ploy be this government to start bringing about the end of the PIP benefit.
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      · 15 days ago
      @Matt Why? The PIP Assesors are systematically down pointing people who are Middle and High rate, downplaying and minimising proven medical evidence. That is WRONG. We cannot roll over and let this continue.
    • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
      · 20 days ago
      @Mick Totally agree, I feel aggrieved as is that as a single person too sick to work, I already get less in benefits than a healthy individual working full time, earning the minimum living wage, which is what we apparently need to have a decent standard of living. I feel disadvantaged unfairly enough, that I am financially worse off as a result of being incapacitated, compared to a healthy individual without having my income cut completely potentially, as someone on PIP and claiming NS ESA support group.
    • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
      · 22 days ago
      @Matt sounds fairly sensible. Also, working people claiming PIP could possibly be given a different tax code instead. Two points across 6 plus descriptors can equate to a high level of functional disability and to insist on eligibility resting on a 4 point score is just awful. Where can you realistically score 4? Cooking, washing, mixing with others maybe, dressing perhaps?
    • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
      · 23 days ago
      @Matt
      There should be no cuts or reductions, it is already far too low and not enough to live.  It should be increased.  Disability costs on average an extra £1100 per month in living costs!

      I understand that a compromise, as you suggest, might be better than the plans, which will be a catastrophic reduction for hundreds of thousands but it should not be a choice of a reduction or a massive reduction.  Then, how long until they decide it's not enough and come back for more or carry on freezing increases, putting people into further and deeper poverty?
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    · 24 days ago
    1  of few left tradtion  LABOUR  mps on peoples s side . 
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    · 24 days ago
    So MPS are required to vote on proposed disability benefit cuts without having access to the devastating comprehensive impact assessment report, the government plans to implement the disability benefit cuts in the 2026-27 fiscal year, and legislation is anticipated to be introduced before

    Just remember every MP received John Prings book, 'the department' highlighting how thousands have died after being found fit for work under the Tory austerity years due to the introduction of WCA, policies which were devastating, and introduced

    Because they are never held accountable, they make the same 'mistakes' again.
    • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
      · 8 days ago
      @Rusty At the rate Labour is going, no one will be voting for them at the next election: it is fast becoming an unelectable party. How could anyone be expected to trust a word Labour says at an election again? When the Tories last year said of making cuts to the Welfare  system, every Labour politician including Stammer stood up + were critical of the idea + what does Labour do when it got, immediately threten to mug the disabled. Now  every Labour MP who was critical of the Tories Welfare reform now needs to vote against these cuts. 
    • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
      · 20 days ago
      @Peter Absolutely correct and it is high time they were held accountable. Things are getting completely out of hand now with the corruptive way labour are going about governing. I’m not sure if Starmer is the real issue having no regard for the laws and rules. Ironically with his legal background. MP’s who support this are in breach of the parliamentary code of conduct page 2, 1d. ‘The purpose of the code of conduct is to ensure all Members can and do speak and act without fear or favour’. How can this possibly be fair? They are pushing ahead without the impact assessment. Not that anyone needs to see that to know what the impact is going to be!
    • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
      · 20 days ago
      @Mick Conlabourvertists 
    • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
      · 21 days ago
      @Mick I agree it's a Scylla and Charybdis choice but, as a life long Labour voter, I honestly don't think I can vote for this iteration of the Labour Party in the next GE - at least I'l feel that in some small way I'll be registering my disatisfaction with the present Government.  I've decided that rather than voting with my previous allegiance - or any allegiance with any political party - I'll be looking at a mix of party policies and individual candidates' history of community and political activity to inform my decision.  At the moment, as I'm not in England, it will likely be the nationalist party or the Greens.  My other thought is that any political party that sets out their stall along the lines of "vote for us, you know us, you know we may not look out for your interests but the others are no better and will treat you worse than we do" is using tactics often used in domestic abuse and I won't let that stop me voting for the party that best aligns with my values and the interests of my community ... even if they stand no chance of winning the GE or even the seat.  If that means we get a tory returned in our constituency well, as sad as that is, it's the fault of the current Government's choice to balance the books on the backs of the most vulnerable in our society instead of calling on those with the broadest shoulders to bear up.
    • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
      · 23 days ago
      @Mick It has been reported that the Labour frontbenchers are all multi-millionaires.

      Therefore, the same class as the Conservatives.

      Two parties. One mindset.
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    · 24 days ago
    The problem with this is it's a relatively small proportion of society which will suffer severe poverty. There will not be enough support for the minority. While the majority of people able to work just want to pay less tax. Personally I don't score 4 points but have high care needs. I will loose everything 
    • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
      · 24 days ago
      @Russell
      Selfish and shortsighted of people who are able to work.  Firstly, it will cost them and the economy more because of the massive social and economic benefits of welfare and looking after the poorest, reducing inequality and poverty.  Secondly, people don't think it could happen to them or their loved ones and how they will be treated if they become chronically ill and/or disabled.  I'm all right jack attitude and turning away as long as they aren't affected.

      They'll be coming after them next because all these plans won't work and more taxes will be taken from "economically active working people".

      The figures quoted of the financial losses people face and how many will be affected, are nowhere near the true figures.  This is going to be devastating if it goes ahead.
    • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
      · 24 days ago
      @Russell Don't give up. 'Losing' sides sometimes win. If we give up, they've won already. If the majority do win, I at least want to ensure their consciences and reputations don't come out unscathed. 

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