NHS Welfare and aid cuts...

Is Labour on the right track?

- James Tapper, Toby Helm and Denis Campbell

People on benefits are worried. Some MPs talk of 'cruelty'. Is Keir Starmer's plan to cut public spending a betrayal of his party's values, ask James Tapper, Toby Helm and Denis Campbell

All the talk is about benefit cuts at Yum, a community pantry in Armley, one of the poorest parts of Leeds. It's in the heart of Rachel Reeves's constituency and the chancellor said three years ago that food banks such as Yum and clothing exchanges such as Bundles, both run by the Armley Action Team, were proof that rising poverty during the cost of living crisis meant that benefits should rise.

Now, however, Reeves is planning to cut them, including money for disabled people.

People coming to Yum to get a free "milk, bread and spread" package and other essentials are understandably worried. Two friends, Wendy Halliday and Jacqueline Parker, have dropped in - both healthcare assistants who worked at the same nursing home and were forced to give up work after 30 years through ill health.

Parker, 65, has fibromyalgia, "like having cramp all over your body 24 hours a day", while Halliday is 63 and has a bad back from years of lifting elderly patients without the help of a hoist. She used to walk miles on the moors; now she needs a taxi to get to the food bank.

Both get personal independence payments (Pip), a disability benefit in the sights of ministers who want to slash the welfare bill by £5bn.

"Pip to me has been a godsend," Halliday says. "It gets me out. If you're stuck in the house, depression kicks in. It affects your mental health." Before Pip, she was living on £300 a month, with £200 going on fuel bills, leaving a mere £100 a month to cover her council tax, water bill and shopping. Now she gets an extra £72 a week.