More than 120 Labour MPs were preparing to vote against the government’s welfare cuts in the Commons on Tuesday
Ruth Curtice, a former Treasury official how now runs the Resolution Foundation, a thinktank focusing on cost of living issues, told the Today programme that the welfare bill U-turn could cost the Treasury about £3bn a year. She explained:
The Institute for Fiscal Studies said [it would cost] £1.5bn yesterday on the Pip changes. I think it’s more like £3bn: you have the changes to Pip which cost £1.5bn to £2bn when you also take into account consequentials for things like carer’s allowance, but they’ve also said the freeze that they were going to introduce on universal credit health-related support will be undone and that will now rise in real terms and we estimate that will cost another £1bn.
I think there’s huge talent, experience and knowledge in parliament, and it’s important it’s better listened to, and I think that message has landed.
I’m really blown away by the talent of my new colleagues in particular, because I didn’t know them before the election.
