Instead of making a moral argument for the need to reform a broken a system, Labour has cast welfare changes as a narrow fiscal exercise, say Jean-André Prager and Sean Phillips

The Prime Minister appears to have quelled a mass rebellion over health and disability benefit reform, but the concessions made to backbench ‘rebels’ are considerable.

Eligibility requirements will no longer change for current claimants of the Personal Independent Payment (PIP). The Universal Credit health element won’t be frozen for claimants. A review into PIP criteria will be “co-produced” with disabled people. Employment support will be introduced sooner than initially intended. The total cost to the Exchequer could be over £3bn – and the effect felt as soon as the Autumn Budget via tax rises or spending cuts.

But had you listened to the rhetoric of Labour frontbenchers in recent months, you couldn’t have envisaged such a........

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