MPs will need courage to cut the welfare bill
Over 100 Labour MPs also have more claimants for mental health conditions such as anxiety, ADHD and autism than their majorities, says Joseph Dinnage
The unsustainable expansion of the welfare state is the most important domestic political issue of our time. Britain’s pervasive lack of ambition, dependence, profligacy and idleness are all symptoms of this underlying illness.
The stats don’t lie. In the 2025/26 financial year, we are projected to spend almost £335bn on social security and welfare benefits – 10.6 per cent of GDP. As of 2026, over 4m adults in England and Wales claim personal independence payments (PIP), £37.3bn is spent annually on social housing and over half the population of the UK are net recipients of the state, rather than net contributors.
Just this week, the Taxpayers’ Alliance found that a fifth of working-age adults in England and Wales are receiving universal credit.
These figures shame us, yet politicians of all stripes have failed to tackle the issue head on. After all, who wants to be remembered as the party that targeted the vulnerable?
Political headwinds continue to run against welfare reform, as the number of those claiming continues to rise. It was reported this week that more than half of Labour MPs have a greater number of disability benefit claimants in their constituency than the size of their electoral majority. Of Labour’s 366 seats in England and Wales, 212 have a higher number of constituents claiming PIP. Over 100 Labour MPs also have more claimants for mental health conditions such as anxiety, ADHD and autism than their majorities.
Squeamish
Even those with relatively safe seats are at risk. Pat McFadden – MP for Wolverhampton South East and the man responsible for delivering welfare reform – has a majority of 9,188 votes but 11,646 PIP claimants. Wes Streeting is the most exposed, with 6,284 PIP claimants in Ilford North compared with his majority of 528.
Andy Burnham has said he is not ‘squeamish’ about welfare reform. But we’ve heard this before. It was only two years ago when Keir Starmer said that the welfare state was the ‘worst of all worlds’ – a world he promised to improve with his flagship welfare bill. Ultimately, faced with a backbench rebellion, the former Prime Minister was forced into a humiliating climbdown. The central plank of the bill – cuts to PIP – was shelved and at the beginning of this year, the legislation was not even mentioned in the King’s Speech.
The Conservative Party’s Helen Whately, responsible for the opposition’s welfare strategy, is also defying the odds. In Faversham and Mid Kent, Whately has a majority of 1,469, whereas the number of PIP claimants totals 5,243. Yet she is leading the Tories’ plan to cut an annual £23bn from the welfare bill through targeted reforms
Don’t be fooled into sympathy. Labour MPs are not the only politicians who would have to face down their constituents to fight our benefits crisis. Robert Jenrick – Reform UK’s Treasury Spokesman – also faces difficulties. In his seat of Newark, his majority of 3,571 is smaller than the number of PIP claimants, 6,011. Yet Jenrick has not allowed the electoral calculus to stand in the way of bold policy, having announced a series of measures last month that would cut the welfare bill by £50 billion a year.
The Conservative Party’s Helen Whately, responsible for the opposition’s welfare strategy, is also defying the odds. In Faversham and Mid Kent, Whately has a majority of 1,469, whereas the number of PIP claimants totals 5,243. Yet she is leading the Tories’ plan to cut an annual £23bn from the welfare bill through targeted reforms.
With creeping inflation and tax rises on the horizon, Britons are in for a rough ride, and their tolerance for political cowardice is running thin. There are billions in savings to be made, and if Burnham is as committed a man of the people as he claims, he will not allow himself to remain paralysed by his party. If he does, he will cede this debate to the Right for generations.
Joseph Dinnage is senior press officer at the Prosperity Institute