Labour has long prided itself on being the party of compassion. Indeed, ever since Thatcherism, personified in the minds of many by the fictional television character Alan B’Stard – and ever since Theresa May gave her 2002 speech admitting that the Conservatives were the ‘nasty party’ – being compassionate has been a trademark and a selling point of the Labour party.

Labour politicians constantly bleat about how caring they are. Sometimes it seems that the only people they care about are themselves

This is why those who lead it are always reluctant to cut welfare spending, and why those further to the left on its parliamentary backbenches are ideologically hostile to it. To cut spending on the poor and needy would be to cast oneself in the same mould as the nasty, selfish Tories.

This is also why, as reported in the Times yesterday, there will very likely be no overhaul in the benefits system before the next general election. To avoid another confrontation with his backbench MPs, Sir Keir Starmer has vetoed plans for a new attempt to reform the welfare system. The Department for Work and Pensions has been told it will not be given any parliamentary time to change it, meaning any reforms will be unlikely to........

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