Reeves criticised by Labour MP on benefits cuts

A Labour MP has strongly criticised the chancellor's plans to substantially cut welfare spending over the next few years.

Montgomeryshire and Glyndwr MP Steve Witherden repeated his calls for a wealth tax to tackle the UK government's cash shortfall.

He said yesterday's Spring Statement from Rachel Reeves, who is on a visit to south Wales, "strips benefits from our most vulnerable".

After the first minister said it was "disappointing" that the impact of the cuts had not been assessed for Wales, Reeves told the BBC that Eluned Morgan was speaking with Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall.

Reeves' Spring Statement included tightening qualification rules for Personal Independence Payments (Pips), the main disability benefit claimed by more than 250,000 working-age people in Wales.

She told MPs "it can't be right" some people were improperly using them.

In a hard-hitting video statement on X, Witherden - the only Welsh Labour MP to publicly question the welfare policy of the UK government - said: "Today's Spring Statement strips benefits from our most vulnerable in a welfare system already on its last legs.

"This will only lead to more suffering and shorten more lives. The government must tax the very wealthiest in our society properly, not cut benefits further than the Tories."

Morgan had written to Kendall asking for an assessment of the planned benefits cuts for Wales after one was published for England and Wales combined.

An assessment has been published, but on an England and Wales basis.

On Thursday morning Reeves said: "Of course, as we put money into getting people back to work, that will have implications for money for Wales to support people in Wales to get back to work.

"Liz Kendall and Eluned Morgan are in discussions at the moment, we're determined to work together".

Meanwhile, the chancellor said "hundreds of jobs" would be created by plans for a £250m investment into a Newport semi-conductor plant.

In a Radio Wales interview, Reeves said she would be visiting the Vishay plant where semi-conductors, or chips, are made for use in millions of electronic products, from smartphones to household equipment and cars.

Vishay bought the plant after the previous Conservative UK government forced its previous Chinese parent company to sell on national security grounds.

Reeves also announced that Ministry of Defence (MoD) land was "in the mix" for new housing developments in Wales.

Although housing is under the control of the Welsh government, Reeves said she was keen to release MoD land - which the UK government is responsible for - in Wales.

She added that there was "surplus public land which isn't being used today which can be used to build houses".

Meanwhile, Plaid Cymru has called for "an urgent debate" in the Senedd following the welfare cuts announcement, saying Wales would be disproportionately affected.

The party said this was because the country has higher rates of disabled people of working age than the UK average and some of the highest levels of economic inactivity due to long-term illness.

At Westminster, Plaid Cymru MP Ann Davies raised the issue in the Commons on Thursday, later saying the lack of a Wales impact assessment showed a "shocking disregard for disabled people and those who care for them".

The fact that the research request came from a Labour Welsh government to a Labour UK administration, she said, was "proof that the partnership between both governments is failing".