Labour is putting forward an opposition day motion for Wednesday on employiment and social security: but the wording was subtly changed in recent hour, as one eagle-eyed reader has noticed.
The difference is that the new version no longer contains the phrase “before proceeding with further reform”” at the end: that may reflect a tussle on Labour’s front bench between Blairite types and their opponents, although they are unlikely to admit this.
Version 1:
‘Jobs and Social Security’
This House notes that only just over two in every hundred people referred to the Work Programme in its first year have gone into work; further notes that it has delivered a worse outcome than no programme at all; recognises long term unemployment is soaring and that the welfare bill is projected to be £20 billion higher than planned; notes with concern that the government is cutting £14 billion from tax credits and is taking £6.7 billion from disability benefits to pay for this cost of failures; and calls on the Government to implement a bank bonus tax to fund a Real Jobs Guarantee for young people and commission a cumulative impact assessment of disability benefit changes before proceeding with further reform.
Version two.
‘Jobs and Social Security’
This House notes that only just over two in every hundred people referred to the Work Programme in its first year have gone into work; further
Jim Pickard
Kiran Stacey