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WORK and Pensions Secretary Esther McVey was accused today of seeking MPs’ approval for announcing that she will not contest a High Court ruling over disability benefits.
Putting an urgent question, SNP MP Peter Grant asked her to explain her department’s “appalling” record of court defeats over benefit reforms.
Labour’s Gareth Snell said it was “frankly unacceptable” that she had “come to the House seeking plaudits” and called on her to unequivocally apologise for the defeated policy.
Labour will find increases in the state pension age are unacceptable, just as cuts to the Winter Fuel Allowance, personal independence payments and universal credit are — it needs to change direction immediately, writes PCS general secretary FRAN HEATHCOTE
The government’s retreat on PIP still leaves 150,000 new universal credit claimants facing halved benefits from April 2026, creating a discriminatory two-tier welfare system that campaigners must continue fighting, writes DR DYLAN MURPHY
