Liz Kendall tried to use her Commons statement on the government’s U-turn on some of the disability benefit cuts to persuade her colleagues that the changes made the legislation worth supporting. Not all of them sounded very convinced: there were repeated complaints about a ‘two-tier system’ whereby two people with the same needs would get completely different levels of support. MPs were also concerned they were signing ‘blank cheques’ by voting on the bill tomorrow when full details of the changes won’t be available until later in the year. And there were suspicions that the changes won’t be as meaningful as ministers have suggested.

The Work and Pensions Secretary gave a very forceful opening statement about the importance of reforming the welfare system, which she said was ‘failing on all fronts’, and was in danger of falling over entirely as the number of claimants increased. She argued that ‘MPs on this side of the House have welcomed many aspects of our........

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