Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner, Interior Secretary, Yvette Cooper and the Secretary of Justice, Shabana Mahmood, made concerns about the British government’s imminent expenses during a “tense” cabinet session on Tuesday, people who know the meeting.
According to one of the people, a “great minority” of the Cabinet of Sir Keir Starmer protested the expected discounts in their own departments. Some have also raised concerns about plans for up to 6 billion pounds of social cuts that should be presented next week.
Energy secretary Ed Miliband and the head of the House of Commons Lucy Powell also raised concerns about the cuts, said the people.
The review, which ends in June, will determine three years of future departmental spending while Chancellor Rachel Reeves is looking for savings to ensure that her budgetary sums add up.
Unprotected departments in regions such as the environment, local governments and justice have been invited to model real reductions up to 11%.
At the meeting of the cabinet – which is followed by 27 higher ministers – some ministers wondered if taxes could be noted as an alternative to expense reductions.
The discussed discounts follow the plans to make the budget of international aid in half to pay an increase in defense expenses, as well as unpopular reductions in winter fuel payments for retirees.
“The number 10 is very worried,” said a Labor MP. “There is a feeling that they can row. They did not have the strength of feeling but they do it now. People fear losing their seats. »»
Reeves faces the additional challenge of slow economic growth in the approach of a spring declaration with high issues this month. Friday, the monthly GDP figures showed an unexpected contraction of 0.1% in January.
People knowing Tuesday’s cabinet’s meeting said Rayner had raised the concerns of labor deputies as to the depth of the breakdown’s cuts – which includes radical reforms that the former conservative government bleached during the “austerity” period a decade ago.
In addition, Rayner would be concerned about the fact that the expenditure examination could hinder plans to increase the construction of houses – including social housing – during this parliament, one of the main objectives of the Labor government.
Mahmood argued that the compression of expenses would be difficult for the Ministry of Justice, which has endured long -term budget cuts and oversees an almost full capacity penitentiary system.
Cooper wondered if the tightening of the operations of the Ministry of the Interior could undermine the government’s priorities to guarantee safer streets and to guarantee borders, which includes police forces.
People have added that Starmer allowed the meeting to continue longer than usual due to the strength to feel in the room. Several government personalities spoke to the Financial Times in Reunion, but all asked to talk about the file.
A person familiar with the firm’s meeting said that various challenges had been met by a large number of higher ministers. Another said: “It was tense, but it was college and professional.”
David Lammy, Minister of Foreign Affairs, told colleagues that the concerns expressed by Mahmood and Cooper should be taken seriously.
But he also supported Reeves’ desire for tax discipline, arguing that Labor governments have historically lost when they spend too much money.
Peter Kyle, secretary of science, defended the austere approach of management – to be interrupted by Powell, according to those who know the discussion.
“There was a fairly coherent message from Shabanana Mahmood and Yvette Cooper and Angela Rayner, and others,” said a person close to talks.
“Each department has difficult choices to come,” they added. “This does not mean that people” complained “, they are sympathetic to Rachel’s task, they simply explained that they have pressure.”
The number 10 has invited large lots of labor deputies in the building for briefings on the need to shake the social protection system. Claire Reynolds, a Starmer liaison manager with the deputies, presented a slideshow showing the growing costs of the generous advantages.
The people said Reynolds told participants that the number of economically inactive people in Great Britain was not financially sustainable for the government.
The ministers plan to find most of their proposed savings by making people more difficult for people to qualify for “personal independence” (PIP), whose cost has doubled in half a decennia.
But these meetings failed to repress misfortune among many deputies. “I know that the backlash is wide and serious,” said a new loyalist deputy.
Brian Leishman, a new Labor MP, warned that the reduction in disability benefits would show a “basis of humanity”, adding: “The value of 6 billion pounds of cutting will be absolutely devastating, especially for some of the most vulnerable and most disadvantaged people in our society.”
A discussed compromise would be to strengthen payments to long -term disabled people who are considered to have no chance of returning to the workplace, according to people close to talks.
In his presentation of slideshow, Reynolds told deputies that one of the five fundamental principles of Starmer’s approach in terms of well-being would be “to always protect people with the most serious disabilities”, according to participants.
A government figure said no one in the room had disputed the need to maintain current budgetary rules. “No mutiny,” they said. “No member of the cabinet has declared that we should not reform well-being or respect our budgetary rules.”
Starmer warned Labor deputies that budgetary rules will not be relaxed to avoid painful well-being cuts, despite increasing pressure for the United Kingdom to follow Germany by activating borrowing taps.
The Prime Minister maintains that any relaxation of the self-imposed restriction would frighten the markets and force borrowing costs.
“There was a lot of support for budgetary rules, but not for difficult choices in the political fields of individual ministers,” a government official at the FT.
