Ministers scramble to stop Labour rebellion on disability benefit cuts

Backbenchers may be allowed to abstain when MPs vote this summer

- Aletha Adu Kiran Stacey

Ministers are scrambling to avoid a damaging rebellion this summer when MPs vote on controversial cuts to disability benefit payments, even offering potential Labour party rebels the chance to miss the vote altogether.

The government is due to hold a vote in June, and dozens of Labour MPs are worried that the cuts will hurt their constituents and could cost them their seats.

Possible solutions include allowing backbenchers to abstain - a major climbdown from earlier votes, when rebels were disciplined or suspended from the party. Ministers are also looking for ways to mitigate the cuts with more spending on measures to tackle child poverty, including extra benefits payments for poorer parents of children under five.

One Labour MP said: "When people abstained on the winter fuel vote, they were warned it had been taken by the leadership as voting against the government. This time, however, a number of MPs have been offered the opportunity to abstain."

Government sources said whipping arrangements had not yet been decided for the vote in two months' time, but did not deny that potential rebels had been offered the opportunity to abstain.

The cuts to benefits have become one of the biggest sources of tension within the Labour party since it came to power. In recent months, backbenchers have been stripped of potential privileges for abstaining on a vote to remove the household cap on winter fuel payments, while several were suspended last summer for defying the whip over the two-child benefit cap.