George Osborne risks another parliamentary defeat only a week after
the government lost a vote over plans to liberalise Sunday trading laws.
Plans to change payments to disabled people face a growing backlash
from some Conservative MPs, including a number of Christians.
David Burrowes, the MP for Enfield Southgate who led the Tory
rebellion on Sunday trading, told reporters the government needs
to "rethink its plan".
"Conservatives have a good record in supporting the disabled which is
at risk if we press ahead with this unfair cut to PIP," he said.
He told reporters the measure was a "quick fix to the gap in
public finances" and urged the government to spend more time on "long
term reform on disability benefits".
The changes would cut the Personal Independence Payment (PIP) for
disabled people by £1.3 billion over the next five years. The Office for
Budget Responsibility estimated 370,000 people would lose an average of
£3,500 a year. The payment reduction would particularly affect those
who need aides help to dress and go to the toilet.
Burrowes was at pains to praise the government's welfare reforms and economic strategy in an article for the Guardian but said he was "yet to be convinced" about the proposed cuts.
"It is hard to maintain the claim of fairness when 'aids and
appliances' to help disabled people go to the toilet and get up in the
morning are to be downgraded while, for example, comparatively wealthy
individuals are to receive a cut in capital gains tax."
The level of anger was made clear after Zac Goldsmith, the
Conservative candidate for mayor of London, was asked to step down as
patron of his local Richmond AID disability charity. Kit Malthouse was
also told to resign as patron of MS Society and James Cleverly as patron
of Advocacy for All.
Nicky Morgan, the education secretary who is also a Christian, raised hopes of a government climbdown after she said on BBC Question Time the plans were a "suggestion" and "under consultation".
However on Friday morning a source close to work and pensions
secretary Iain Duncan Smith said her remarks don't "tally with what we
and Downing Street are saying", according to the BBC.
Morgan didn't "seem to understand" the proposals, said the source.
A number of Christian charities wrote to the minister for disabled
people and urged him to change the plans. The letter warned "damage the health and wellbeing" of up to 600,000 people.
Founder of Compassionate Britain Tanya Marlow, one of the
signatories, stated: "In 2010, David Cameron promised
compassion, and yet he keeps targeting cuts at the most vulnerable in
our society.
"Government cuts have already affected disabled people nine times
more than the average person and severely disabled people 19 times more.
Now they want to introduce a back-door cut to a vital disability
benefit."
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