2 July 2025, 09:21

By Natasha Clark

It’s easy to say with hindsight that Downing Street should have seen this week's welfare rebellion from a mile away.

Cuts to benefits, reforms to the welfare state, and huge changes to the status quo were always going to be difficult for any government, let alone a Labour one, to swallow.

Tonight’s 49-strong Labour rebellion will have left No10 and the Prime Minister seriously worried.

Labour MPs are feeling emboldened, able to force the government into huge climb downs on major legislation, and are willing in major numbers to rebel.

The question everyone will be asking after last night is - what issue might be next?

The two child-benefit cap? SEND reforms? Budget decisions? NHS reform? All of it could be up for serious grabs now.

One former government adviser told me last night: "MPs can go putting down reasoned amendments to the budget, or anything else they like now."

What that really says is that Sir Keir Starmer, who came in promising change, may be doomed to put that slogan in the bin as of tonight.

While some good reforms have been kicked off, many others have barely begun.

And voters who were finally hoping this government might be able to be........

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