People on benefits are worried and some MPs are talking of ‘cruelty’. Is Keir Starmer’s plan to cut public spending a betrayal of his party’s values?
All the talk is about benefit cuts at Yum, a community pantry in Armley, one of the poorest parts of Leeds. It’s in the heart of Rachel Reeves’s constituency and the chancellor said three years ago that food banks such as Yum and clothing exchanges such as Bundles, both run by the Armley Action Team, were proof that rising poverty during the cost of living crisis meant that benefits should rise.
Now, however, Reeves is planning to cut them, including money for disabled people.