Here’s how wounded PM should fight his own party

Battered by Labour MPs, Keir Starmer is on the ropes after the government’s humiliating climbdown on welfare reform.

- ANDREW GRICE

One black eye came last week when ministers exempted existing claimants from cuts to the personal independence payment (PIP). Last night, Starmer suffered a bloody nose when he had to shelve changes to PIP to prevent the legislation being defeated.

The government’s planned savings of £5bn have been reduced to nothing.

Starmer looks incapable of persuading Labour MPs to swallow the “tough decisions” he promised. The danger now is paralysis and the prime minister looking, as Norman Lamont said of John Major, “in office but not in power”. Starmer must somehow stop the backbench tail wagging the government dog. He needs to restore his bark, let alone his bite.

Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, must fill a big black hole in her Budget in the autumn - and this time she won't be able to blame the Conservatives. Her £9.9bn of headroom against her fiscal rules has evaporated: she must find £5bn for disability benefits; £1.25bn for the U-turn on winter fuel payments; and an estimated £4bn for lower-than-expected economic growth. Starmer wants to scrap the two-child benefit limit at a cost of £3.5bn, and Labour MPs now have the muscle to achieve it. Total cost: £13.75bn, just for starters.