On 1 July 2025, the prime minister, Keir Starmer, was forced into a dramatic climbdown over his government’s flagship welfare reform bill, just 90 minutes before voting began in the House of Commons. Faced with a significant backbench rebellion that threatened his first commons defeat, Starmer sanctioned a series of sweeping eleventh-hour concessions.

The controversy centred on the government’s proposals to reform eligibility for personal independence payments (Pip) and universal credit (UC). The measures, set out by work and pensions secretary Liz Kendall, aimed to save approximately £5 billion annually by the end of the decade.

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In the days leading up to the vote, a rebel “reasoned amendment” to the Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill secured over 120 signatures from Labour MPs.

A reasoned amendment is an amendment to the main commons motion which sets out the specific reasons for opposing a bill. Critically, if a bill fails to receive a second reading, it can progress no further; commons rules means the government is prohibited from introducing a bill in “substantially the same terms” in the same session.

Tabled in the name of Dame Meg Hillier, the influential and longstanding chair of the public accounts committee (PAC), the amendment objected to the fact that the bill had not been subject to a “formal consultation with disabled people” and that “250,000 people will be pushed into poverty” as a result of it. Hillier was supported by several other Labour select committee chairs, including Debbie Abrahams as chair of the work and pensions select committee.

The amendment was signed by at least 11 serving select committee chairs. Helen Hayes (education), Sarah Owen (women and equalities), Florence Eshalomi (housing, communities and local government), Paulette Hamilton (health and social care), Tan Dhesi (defence), Cat Smith (procedure committee), Ruth Cadbury (transport), Patricia Ferguson (Scottish affairs), and Ruth Jones (Welsh affairs) were among the signatories.

The seniority of such figures signalled that the rebellion extended well into the mainstream of the parliamentary party.

The reasoned amendment also called on the government to wait for the publication of the review into the Personal Independence Payment (Pip), helmed by disability minister Sir Stephen Timms, and the independent review, conducted by Sir Charlie Mayfield, into how the employment of disabled people could be boosted.

Starmer initially described the burgeoning rebellion as “noises off” – a comment that saw his political judgement placed under renewed scrutiny.

Days of negotiations with the rebel group, led by Hillier and Abrahams, resulted in a significant concession. On 26 June, it was announced that no existing Pip claimants would be subject to new, stricter eligibility rules. The government also reversed some of the planned universal credit cuts.

The partial U-turn appeased some of the bill’s critics. But it was not enough to suppress the rebellion.

Speaking during the bill’s second reading debate, Marie Tidball, one of the few visibly physically disabled MPs in the commons, revealed she would vote against the proposed legislation. In an emotionally charged speech, she spoke of her pledge to create a Britain “that treats disabled people with dignity and respect.”

She said: “We must seize this moment to do things differently and move beyond the damaging rhetoric and disagreements of recent weeks. There is an alternative approach, in line with the prime minister’s statement that reform should be implemented with Labour values of fairness.

“A reset requires a shift in emphasis to enabling disabled people to fulfil our potential.”

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Just 90 minutes before MPs were due to vote, Timms told the commons that changes to restrict Pip would be delayed until after his review of the disability benefit. Originally, the Pip changes were due to come in from November 2026.

Intervening on a backbench Labour MP’s speech, Timms said: “Others across the House during this debate have raised concerns that the changes to Pip are coming ahead of the conclusions of the review of the assessment that I will be leading.

“We’ve heard those concerns and that is why I can announce that we are going to remove the Clause V from the bill at committee [stage], that we will move straight to the wider review… and only make changes to Pip eligibility activity and descriptors following that review.”

Helen Whately, the shadow work and pensions secretary, responded that the bill had “more or less disintegrated”. She called the proposed legislation a “rushed and chaotic compromise that would harm disabled people and create a two-tier benefit system”.

On the Labour benches, the U-turn was met with bemusement.

Mary Kelly Foy said she had “popped out earlier for a banana, and when I came back in, things had changed again, so I am even more unclear of what I am voting on.”

Paula Barker took aim at the “incoherent and shambolic nature of the process.”

She added: “It is the most unedifying spectacle that I have ever seen.”

The gutted bill passed by 335 to 260 votes – a majority of 75. At the time, Labour possessed a working majority of 165.

A total of 49 Labour MPs voted against the second reading – a still sizable rebellion given the scale of concessions made. The vote, and the tumultuous 24 hours that preceded it, represented a serious dent in the prime minister’s authority.

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Starmer subsequently admitted that the government “didn’t get the process right”.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Political Thinking podcast, the prime minister reflected: “We didn’t get the process right. Labour MPs are absolutely vested in this.

“It matters to them to get things like this right, and we didn’t get that process right.”

The climbdown meant Rachel Reeves, the chancellor of exchequer, would need to locate her supposed £5 billion worth of savings elsewhere.

On 16 July, four Labour MPs had the party whip suspended after rebelling against the government. The group, which included Neil Duncan-Jordan, Brian Leishman, Chris Hinchliff and Rachael Maskell, were described as “persistent rebels” by party sources.

Starmer justified the suspensions by stating he was “determined” to change the country “for the better”.

Starmer said: “We had to deal with people who repeatedly break the whip. Because everyone was elected as a Labour MP on the manifesto of change and everybody needs to deliver as a Labour government.

“This is about what we’re doing for the country and that’s why I’m so determined to press forward with the reforms and the change that we need to bring about.”

Following four months sitting as independent MPs, the group had the whip restored on 7 November 2025. This followed what were described as “constructive discussions” with the chief whip, Jonathan Reynolds.