Starmer and his callousness were just exposed by Richard Burgon

After a cutting question from Richard Burgon, Keir Starmer’s callousness was just on full display

At Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs), Labour MP Richard Burgon challenged Keir Starmer on the cuts to disabled people’s support:

.@RichardBurgon: “No Labour govt should ever try to balance the books on the backs of disabled people” #PMQs pic.twitter.com/h4R2gcPfiY

— Saul Staniforth (@SaulStaniforth) June 11, 2025

Burgon: ‘drop the cuts’

The MP for Leeds East said:

Mr Speaker… no Labour government should ever try to balance the books on the backs of disabled people. Yet in just a few weeks time that is what the prime minister

will ask this House to do. Many of us will not be able to go along with that, because it will mean that people who need assistance to cut up their food, to wash themselves, to dress themselves and to go to the toilet will lose the PIP they currently get – that’s vital support. This week the prime minister changed direction on winter fuel payment, will he do the same in relation to this and now drop these disability benefit cuts.

On 9 June, the Labour government confirmed a welcome U-turn on the winter fuel allowance for pensioners. Now any pensioner on £35,000 or less will receive the payment. This will stop thousands of low income pensioners from being pushed into poverty.

But it raises the question of why Labour is going ahead with the disability benefit cuts. Particularly when the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) has itself admitted that the cuts will push 670,000 families that are already in poverty into even deeper financial strain.

This is the continuation of extracting money from the least well off and transferring it to the rich through a rigged system of real estate, privatised utilities, tax breaks, bloated salaries and monopolies.

There are various wealth taxes that could rebalance the economy in a progressive way – by tens of billions per year, far exceeding the amount the government may take from disabled people via DWP cuts. For one, the Labour government could bring in a wealth tax of 1-2% on assets worth over £10m. This would rebalance society by £22bn per year.

In the October 2024 budget, chancellor Rachel Reeves did raise capital gains tax. But equalising the tax on the passive income of capital gains with the tax charged on working people’s income would rebalance society by a further £12.7bn. Research from Oxford University shows that this measure has the support of 62% of the public.

Cruel Starmer

At PMQs, Starmer responded:

Mr speaker, it’s very important we make the changes to our welfare system. It’s not working, it needs reform. I think everybody agrees with that. It doesn’t

work for anyone. We will do so on a principled basis that those who can work should work, those that want to work should be supported to do so and that we must protect those with the most severe disabilities who will never be able to work

Starmer is totally wrong here and he knows it. There is a consensus on welfare and it’s the opposite to what he says – that it simply isn’t enough. In fact, a whopping 91 charities have united to demand that the Labour government introduces an Essentials Guarantee to alleviate poverty in a country where 4.5 million children fall bellow the line.

Burgon is spot on to hold Starmer’s feet to the fire at PMQs.

Featured image via the Canary

Comments 2

Gregg says:

12 months ago

It’s long past time for whatever progressive Labour backbenchers like Richard Burgon are left in the Commons to follow the example of a group of Labour MPs back in 1981 and leave their party. This would in effect be that 1981 event in reverse, instead of MPs leaving a party that had moved too far to the left, this would be MPs leaving one that has moved too far to the right. Back in 1981 that breakaway group only had four members, surely one now would have more?

David Palmer says:

12 months ago

As I said before this is not the Labour party, it was a hostile take over by Starmer and a few others with the intention to break the left. Recent events has shown their policies have been wrong or they would not reverse them, they know they have been doing the wrong things which voters did not vote for, now it’s catch-up and trying to look like they care, what they should of done was make our NHS stronger and put in place laws to stop it being privatised or threatened by the likes of American politics, who see our NHS as a cash cow, Starmer’s gang has made too many mistakes and is trying to back pedal and the public see them for the charlatans they are. Their only hope is to tax the very rich and start to reverse privatisation, pretty sure they won’t be doing anything that drastic now, to many bribes have passed amongst them from those same rich people/companies..