Changes needed if cuts hit vulnerable - Labour MP

A Labour MP has said changes will be needed if measures announced in Wednesday's mini-statement affect the most vulnerable people.

Lee Barron, who represents Corby and East Northamptonshire, said people who could not work needed to be protected.

Stuart Andrew, the Conservative MP for Daventry, said business people in his constituency were worried about changes to national insurance and business rate relief.

The Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, said measures announced in her statement would help "secure Britain's future and deliver prosperity for working people".

Government analysis showed that, as a result of changes to the Personal Independence Payment (PIP), some 370,000 people were expected to lose their entitlement altogether, and others would receive less than they expected. The average loss is £4,500 a year.

Labour's Lee Barron told BBC Radio Northampton: "This now is about supporting people into work - that's what I'll be looking out for, and that's the case we'll be making as we move it forward.

"But, if does involve cuts to the most vulnerable, then I think there will need to be changes as far as that is concerned, and most backbenchers tend to agree with that."

Barron added that work was the route out of poverty and, if people could not work, "we protect those to make sure that we don't impoverish those.

"No-one comes into politics to put those most vulnerable into poverty."

There had been some speculation that the Chancellor might have a change of heart on increases to national insurance contributions paid by businesses, or announce a rise in business rate relief, but neither happened.

Stuart Andrew, the Conservative MP for Daventry in Northamptonshire, said: "As I go round my constituency, I meet with business people, i meet with pub landlords and farmers and they're all saying the same thing, that the rise in employers' national insurance contributions, which is coming in just a few days' time, is something that they're really worried about.

"They don't know how they're going to pay for that, and then you've got other things like the cut in the relief for business rates, and again that's having a huge impact."

The government said the most vulnerable would be protected from spending cuts, and falling inflation in 2026 would "give families and businesses the security they need".

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