Politics LIVE: Keir Starmer 'substantially damaged' as he faces fresh clash with rebel MPs

Sir Keir Starmer is “human” and has been expressing “the challenges that he is facing in the job”, a minister has said, after the Prime Minister said over the weekend he had been focused on international affairs rather than the growing welfare rebellion in recent weeks.

His comments to the Sunday Times came after another interview on Friday in which he said he “deeply regrets” claiming the UK risked becoming an “island of strangers” in an immigration speech, as he reeled from an alleged arson attack on his family home.

Asked about Sir Keir’s comments, former Labour Home Secretary Baroness Jacqui Smith told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “What you’ve just described Nick is a Prime Minister who is human and who expresses the challenges that he is facing in the job.

“But who has also focused on these welfare reforms in a way that will both achieve the necessary big change to welfare so that it actually serves people who need it, and on the details of how we can reassure people about how those changes will go about.”

The OBR has made no revisions to its estimate of 0.7% growth in quarter one of 2025.

However economist Julian Jessop says underlying growth remains particularly weak.

It's believed Rachel Reeves will receive a blow in Q2 as forecasters suggest the economy may have shrunk by 0.3%.

The changes to the Government's plans as a result of the rebellion by Labour MPs include:

All existing PIP recipients will remain on the current system and the proposed changes to eligibility as part of the bill will only apply to new claims from November 2026.

200,000 individuals in the Severe Conditions Criteria group - individuals with the most severe, lifelong conditions who are unlikely to recover – will not be called for a UC reassessment.

All existing recipients of the UC health element and new customers with 12 months or less to live or who meet the Severe Conditions Criteria will see their standard allowance combined with their Limited Capability for Work Related Activity (LCWRA) rise at least in line with inflation every year from 2026/27 to 2029/30.

Monthly Personal Independence Payment awards have more than doubled since the pandemic, rising from 13,000 to 34,000—a rate of around 1,000 new claims per day, or the population of Leicester every year.

Much of this increase is driven by mental health conditions with awards for anxiety and depression having tripled from 2,500 per month in 2019 to 8,200 in 2023.

Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall will speak in the Commons today about plans to reduce the number of people eligible for disability benefits in future, and MPs including Labour backbenchers opposed to the changes will have a chance to ask questions.

The "second reading" vote on the measures takes place tomorrow.

The terms of reference for a comprehensive review of the Personal Independence Payments assessment will be published today. The review is something the Government promised in an effort to placate backbenchers opposed to its benefit cuts.

The review – led by Minister for Social Security and Disability, Sir Stephen Timms - will ensure the system is fair, supportive and reflects the realities of modern life, according to Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall.

It will be co-produced with disabled people and the organisations that represent them, answering one of the biggest complaints about Labour's disability benefit cuts - that it failed to consult disabled people.

It's thought around 50 Labour MPs are still seriously considering voting against the Government's welfare cuts.

This is significantly down from the 126 that originally signed an amendment opposing plans to stop 800,000 people getting Personal Independence Payments, and suggests the Government's compromise - promising no existing claimants will lose the money - has been effective.

But it's still a sizeable rebellion, even if it means the Government is now expected to win tomorrow's vote on the benefit cuts. And even some MPs who will support the Government in the vote are still furious about the way Sir Keir Starmer has handled this row.