There are probably only two weeks to go until the first vote on Labour’s cuts takes place in the Commons. Labour backbenchers suspected of planning to rebel will be bombarded with threats, bribes and misleading propaganda about the reform plans.
But there are still steps you can take to counter the pressure they are experiencing and also to encourage MPs of all parties to vote against the cuts.
Contact local councillors
This really is worth doing. Cuts will have a very damaging effect on local authority budgets as care services, housing, health services, advice services and education will all be hit and everyone will be worse off as a result. So, it’s an issue councillors really should be raising with their MPs.
Tower Hamlets local authority has called on the government to reverse the cuts, which they estimate will cost them £8.5 million a year.
Two Labour councillors in Cheshire have resigned, in part over the cuts. This is not earth shattering, but will be big news locally and will draw attention to Labour’s plans.
One reader who contacted 58 councillors has heard back from some who say they have contacted the local MP. Our reader has also heard from the MP herself, who says she has been contacted by councillors, after residents raised the issue with them.
There’s more details and a sample email to send to councillors here.
Make your MP aware of these reports
There are an awful lot of facts and figures washing about at the moment. But sometimes knowing who objects to a measure can be as important as why they object. So, please make sure you local MP knows about these reports – you can copy and paste this information if you wish:
Citizens Advice (CA) literally works for the DWP, having had over £20 million from them to run the Help To Claim service. But it hasn’t stopped CA publishing Pathways To Poverty, a searing report on the cuts, which begins: “By refusing to properly consult on its plan to cut billions from disability benefits, the government is choosing not to ask questions it doesn’t want the answers to. The cuts will have a devastating impact on disabled people (and their children), sending hundreds of thousands into poverty, and many more into deeper poverty.”
Money saving expert Martin Lewis is probably the most trusted figure in the UK when it comes to financial issues. So, when his charity produces a report on the planned reforms headed “Lead shoes instead of a life ring”, and says “We strongly urge the government to ditch these plans, which will cause misery and hardship for some of the most vulnerable people in society” you can be sure people will listen.
The Commons All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Poverty and Inequality is hugely dominated by Labour MPs. Yet it has condemned the “sweeping cuts” in a report that argues that “These proposals won’t remove barriers to employment—they will add new ones by stripping people of the income they rely on to survive. “
The Commons work and pensions committee also has a Labour majority, yet their interim report asks for any changes to be delayed and warns that the proposals: “might not incentivise work, as the Government hopes, but rather push people deeper into poverty, worsen health, especially in more deprived areas, and move people further from the labour market, as evidence suggests has happened in the past with similar reforms.”
And then there’s the DWP’s own opinion about its chances of moving disabled people into work. At 4pm on Friday 2 May 2025, on the eve of a bank holiday and on a day when the news was dominated by the results of the local elections, the DWP quietly buried two reports.
In “The Experience of Additional Work Coach Support” the DWP found that more time with a work coach improved mental well being for claimants with mental health issues, but had no effect where physical health conditions were concerned and that “Feeling meaningfully closer to work was an outcome for only a minority of those interviewed.”
“Evaluation of the Employment and Health Discussion” found that employment and health discussions make claimant’s briefly feel more positive, but the solutions they produce don’t work and fail to address may of the barriers to work that disabled claimants actually face. Yet the Green Paper argues that claimants will benefit from “a new support conversation” which will “enable people to get help early, providing access to more rapid and timely support.”
When so many respected organisations cast doubt on the Green Paper proposals, surely it’s time to pause the plans and carry out more research and consultation.
Don’t be fooled
Most importantly of all, don’t listen to Labour claims that the rebellion has collapsed, that’s just them trying to make their own backbenchers feel isolated and scared. Instead, keep encouraging claimants to contact their MPs and also offer your own words of support to those MPs brave enough to openly declare they will not vote for Labour’s cuts.
