Further benefit cuts not ruled out – as minister warns ‘we are spending more on cost of failure’
The work and pensions secretary has not ruled out making further cuts to the welfare budget despite already unveiling reforms designed to save £5bn.
Liz Kendall said she had made the changes – which will see the eligibility criteria for disability benefits narrowed – because she wanted to “tackle a failing system that is failing the people who depend on benefits”.
Politics live: Kendall ‘cross’ about welfare system
In an interview with Sky News’ political editor Beth Rigby, the cabinet minister denied the reforms announced today were just a “drop in the ocean”.
She said she had announced a “substantial package” – and the changes would also be aimed at getting people into work to stop the overall bill ballooning to a projected £76bn by 2030.
Ms Kendall said they would deal with a “broken assessment process”, fix “terrible financial incentives” that force people on to welfare, and would focus benefits “on those in greatest need”.
“It’s providing the largest ever package of employment support,” she told Rigby.
Pressed again on whether she would rule out more savings over the course of this parliament, Ms Kendall replied: “I’m not saying that.
“I am suggesting we talk about the proposals we are actually making, and not those which we aren’t.”
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‘Can you work’ test scrapped by Labour
What changes are being made?
Earlier today, Ms Kendall announced a raft of reforms designed to cut the government’s expenditure on long-term sickness and disability benefits for working-age people, which has risen by £20bn since the pandemic.
High on the agenda were personal independence payments (PIP), which provide money for people who have extra care needs or mobility needs as a result of a disability.
People who claim it are awarded points depending on their ability to do certain activities, like washing and preparing food, and this influences how much they will receive.
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Sky’s Political Editor Beth Rigby explains the impact Labour’s welfare reforms could have on the UK.
But Ms Kendall said from November 2026, people will need to score a minimum of four points in at least one activity to qualify for the daily living element of PIP.
Currently, the standard rate is given if people score between eight and 11 points overall, while the enhanced rate applies from 12 points.
However, Ms Kendall said the government would not freeze PIP – as reports had previously suggested – following a backlash from Labour MPs.
Read more:
How is PIP changing?
All the planned welfare reforms
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Why is the government cutting benefits?
Minister ‘cross’ about welfare system
Asked by Rigby whether she had wanted to go further by freezing PIP, Ms Kendall said she had “never started from a sort of macho, tough position”.
“I’ve never done politics like that,” she said. “This is about real people and real lives.”
Ms Kendall, who ran to be Labour leader in the 2015 leadership race won by Jeremy Corbyn, admitted she was “cross” about the state of the welfare system, which she described as “broken”.
“I’ve seen in my own constituency people written off to a life that is not the life they hoped for themselves, or their children or their families,” she said.
Addressing critics who have derided the changes as morally wrong, Ms Kendall said: “What I think is morally wrong is writing off people who could work.
“What’s morally wrong is looking at a benefit system where we are spending more and more on the costs of failure.
“And if that continues, the welfare state that we created won’t be there for the very people who need it.”
UK
Nurse Sandie Peggie who complained about sharing changing room with transgender doctor wins part of employment tribunal
A nurse who complained about sharing a changing room with a transgender doctor has won part of her employment tribunal against NHS Fife, although several claims were dismissed.
Sandie Peggie took action against the health board and transgender medic Dr Beth Upton after she was suspended from her job at Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy following a row with her colleague on Christmas Eve 2023.
Ms Peggie, who has worked for the NHS for 30 years, was placed on special leave after Dr Upton made an allegation of bullying and harassment, and cited concerns about patient care.
The nurse lodged a claim against NHS Fife and Dr Upton, citing the Equality Act 2010, including sexual harassment, harassment related to a protected belief, indirect discrimination, and victimisation.
The employment tribunal hearings took place in Dundee before Judge Sandy Kemp earlier this year.
In a written judgment on Monday, the harassment claim was upheld against NHS Fife, but allegations of discrimination, indirect discrimination and victimisation were dismissed.
The claims against Dr Upton did not succeed and were dismissed.
Dr Beth Upton arriving at the tribunal in February. Pic: PA
Ms Peggie stated: “I am beyond relieved and delighted that the tribunal has found that my employer Fife Health Board harassed me after I complained about having to share a female-only changing room with a male colleague.
“The last two years have been agonising for me and my family.
“I will have much more to say in the coming days once I’ve been able to properly consider the lengthy judgment and discuss it with my legal team.
“For now, I am looking forward to spending a quiet few days with my family.”
Ms Peggie paid tribute to her “incredible” legal team, which included lead counsel Naomi Cunningham, junior counsel Dr Charlotte Elves, and solicitor Margaret Gribbon.
She added: “There are many others I would like to thank and will do so in the coming days.”
Read more:
NHS Fife chief announces early retirement ahead of ruling
The tribunal found that NHS Fife had harassed Ms Peggie by failing to revoke the grant of permission to Dr Upton on an interim basis after the nurse complained, for the period until different work rotas took effect so that they would not work together and said that, as a result, Dr Upton was in the changing room when the claimant was present on two occasions.
It also found the board had harassed Ms Peggie by taking an unreasonable length of time to investigate the allegations against her; by making reference to patient care allegations against her on 28 March 2024; and giving an instruction to her not to discuss the case, until a further message a little over two weeks later which confirmed that applied only to the investigation.
A separate hearing on remedy – which could see Ms Peggie receive financial compensation – will take place at a later date.
NHS Fife said it had been a “complex and lengthy process”.
The health board added: “The employment tribunal unanimously dismissed all of the claimant’s allegations against Dr Upton and all of the allegations against the board apart from four specific aspects of the harassment complaint.
“We will now take time to work through the detail of the judgment alongside our legal team to understand fully what it means for the organisation.
“We want to recognise how difficult this tribunal has been for everyone directly and indirectly involved.
“Our focus now is to ensure that NHS Fife remains a supportive and inclusive environment for all employees and our patients and to deliver health and care to the population of Fife.”
Retired footballer Joey Barton has been sentenced over X posts he sent to football pundits Eni Aluko and Lucy Ward, along with broadcaster Jeremy Vine.
Barton, 43, had been found guilty of six counts of sending a grossly offensive electronic communication with intent to cause distress or anxiety.
He was sentenced to a six-month prison sentence, suspended for 18 months, at Liverpool Crown Court on Monday.
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Watch judge’s remarks in Barton sentencing
The former Manchester City, Newcastle United and Rangers midfielder had claimed he was the victim of a “political prosecution” and denied his aim was to “get clicks and promote himself”.
But the jury decided Barton, capped once for England in 2007, had “crossed the line between free speech and a crime” with the six posts he made on the social media platform.
The prosecution argued that Barton, who has 2.5 million followers, “may well be characterised as cutting, caustic, controversial and forthright”.
Peter Wright KC continued: “Everyone is entitled to express views that are all of those things.
“What someone is not entitled to do is to post communications electronically that are – applying those standards – beyond the pale of what is tolerable in society.”
Barton denied 12 counts of sending a grossly offensive electronic communication with intent to cause distress or anxiety between January and March last year.
He was found guilty on six counts, but cleared of another six.
Eni Aluko at London’s Royal Courts of Justice last year for her libel claim against Barton. Photo: PA
In one post in January 2024, Barton compared Aluko and Ward to the “Fred and Rose West of football commentary”, and superimposed the women’s faces on a photograph of the serial murderers.
He also described Aluko as being in the “Joseph Stalin/Pol Pot category”, suggesting that she had “murdered hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of football fans’ ears”.
The jury found him not guilty in relation to the comparison with the Wests, Stalin and Pol Pot, but decided the superimposed image was grossly offensive.
Jeremy Vine. Pic: PA
Another message allegedly suggested Vine had a sexual interest in children, after the broadcaster posted a question relating to the posts about the football commentators asking whether Barton had a “brain injury”.
The court heard Barton replied to Vine’s tweet with a post referring to him as “you big bike nonce” and made references to convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The ex-footballer told the court the posts were “dark and stupid humour” and “crude banter”. He also said he had no intention of implying Vine was a paedophile.
Sentencing, the Honorary Recorder of Liverpool, Judge Andrew Menary KC, told Barton: “Robust debate, satire, mockery and even crude language may fall within permissible free speech.
“But when posts deliberately target individuals with vilifying comparisons to serial killers or false insinuations of paedophilia, designed to humiliate and distress, they forfeit their protection.
“As the jury concluded, your offences exemplify behaviour that is beyond this limit – amounting to a sustained campaign of online abuse that was not mere commentary but targeted, extreme and deliberately harmful.”
Barton was also given a two-year restraining order preventing him from contacting Aluko, Ward or Vine, or publishing any reference to them on a social media platform or broadcast platform.
He will also have to carry out 200 hours of unpaid work in the community and pay prosecution costs of £23,419.
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