Welsh Labour MP criticises welfare cuts

A Labour MP has strongly criticised the Chancellor’s plans to substantially cut welfare spending over the next few years.

Montgomeryshire and Glyndwr MP Steve Witherden repeated his calls for a wealth tax to tackle the UK government’s cash shortfall.

He said yesterday’s Spring Statement from Rachel Reeves, who is visiting south Wales later, “strips benefits from our most vulnerable”.

Reeves’ Spring Statement included tightening qualification rules for Personal Independence Payments (Pips), the main disability benefit claimed by more than 250,000 working-age people in Wales, with the chancellor telling MPs “it can’t be right” some people were improperly using them.

In a hard-hitting video statement on X, Witherden said: “Today’s Spring Statement strips benefits from our most vulnerable in a welfare system already on its last legs. This will only lead to more suffering and shorten more lives.

“The government must tax the very wealthiest in our society properly, not cut benefits further than the Tories.”

Witherden previously told BBC Wales about his concerns over cuts to the welfare budget and is the only Welsh Labour MP to publicly question the welfare policy of the UK government.

On her visit to south Wales, Reeves is expected to face questions about the further cuts to benefits after the Labour First Minister Eluned Morgan said she was “disappointed” not to have received an assessment of the impact the changes would have.

Meanwhile, Plaid Cymru has called for “an urgent debate” in the Senedd following the welfare cuts announcement.

The party said Wales would be disproportionately affected by the cuts, as the country has higher rates of disabled people of working age than the UK average and some of the highest levels of economic inactivity due to long-term illness.