A change of tone from Labour?

I know that many of you are very sceptical indeed about Labour's position on Welfare Reform and in particular how it failed the sick or disabled.

You're right to be sceptical and regular readers will know that I share that scepticism and even fury.

Nonetheless, I believe that the only way we will achieve real change is to win the hearts and minds of those 650 MPs sitting in the House of Commons. They get to vote, they get to decide, they have the power of veto.

Both myself, the Broken of Britain, National Charities and other campaigners and bloggers have worked tirelessly over the last year and well before to be heard. We have battled daily to give voice to the tremendous concerns we have over the changes to sickness and disability support. Some of it we write about, some of it we can't, but every day we fight.

Yesterday, Liam Byrne made a speech to the London Chamber of Commerce and it undoubtedly showed a change of tone from Labour. It refers to many of the points we have been making and gives me some hope, that at least to some degree, Labour are starting to hear us. I still have grave reservations about some of the content, but it would be self-defeating not to acknowledge the change. Here are the main quotes I feel are noteworthy :

This is the summary. We are at the very heart of it "

• The idea of responsibility is a clear theme coming through in feedback to Labour’s policy review listening events; welfare reform is therefore one of the policy areas where Labour needs to win back trust.
• The Tories have a wrong-headed view of responsibility, with no sense of balance between the responsibility of people to work if they can, and the need of government to help provide jobs and protect the vulnerable.
• The Lib Dems have a chance to show they are serious about standing up to the Tories, by opposing measures which risk pushing thousands of disabled people into poverty in some crunch votes on the welfare reform bill. 

He goes on to say :

• To help get people back to work – but to work if you can.
• To invest in opportunity – but to protect too the most vulnerable.
• To pay your taxes – but in turn to provide a helping hand with getting on and up in life.

Then :

Second, my basic position is that we should cut welfare to help cut the deficit; but we should cut welfare by pushing unemployed people into jobs; not pushing the disabled into poverty.

That is what I now fear the government’s welfare reform bill is about to effect.

Just as government has a responsibility to invest in opportunity, so it has a responsibility to protect the vulnerable.

I think ESA should be reformed, but it is wrong to ask people still recovering from cancer to start filling in job applications.

I think DLA should be reformed with a new, independent gateway, but a big bang approach is irresponsible and risks pushing thousands of disabled people into poverty.

And it will waste over half a billion pounds on retesting and retesting, including the disabled, when thousands of disabled people who are blind or have severe mental health problems, are not going to get better no matter how often you re-test them.

The abolition of the DLA mobility payments will overnight, leave disabled people as prisoners in their care home.

And the halving of disability premium for disabled children risks punishing some of the most vulnerable people in our country. 

Put this together, and this is an approach to reform which quite simply is financed by cruelty to the disabled.

It is irresponsible, we call on the government to change course before it is too late, and we will continue to seek to change the welfare reform bill to make it better.

These measures are not cruel to be kind. They are just cruel and they should change

Compare this to a speech he made just a few months ago on becoming Shadow Secretary of state for Work and Pensions :

http://diaryofabenefitscrounger.blogspot.com/2011/02/so-its-welfare-reform-on-agenda-today.html

Please don't misunderstand me. There is still a very, very long way to go indeed. Labour still support time-limiting sickness benefits, albeit for two years not one. They still seem unaware of (or wilfully ignoring) just how badly ESA is failing us. They are still all "stick" and no "carrot" - a speech to the Chamber of Commerce could have laid foundations for much more responsibility by business to employ and embrace us. 


Nonetheless, every triumph is noteworthy and every step brings us closer to an improvement. 


Later today, Mr Byrne will address the Hardest Hit protesters. They will, understandably, share our scepticism and it is at least to his credit that he will be there - unlike Maria Miller, Minister for Disabilities, who declined the invitation.