Claire Coutinho, Shadow Energy Secretary & Shadow Minister for Equalities, has reacted to Labour's latest U-turn on welfare cuts, posting to X:
Bizarre that Lab are cheering a two-tier system for benefits as a win.
You either think it’s right, in which case all in similar boats should have access, or it’s wrong, in which case it should change for all.
Our welfare system is undeniably out of whack with other countries. The rise in young people on mental health benefits alone is an indictment of a system that forces you to see yourself as less capable than you are.
That’s bad for those individuals, bad for society as it is incentivises more and more people to withdraw and bad for the taxpayer who will be on the hook for another £30bn that can’t be spent on policing, borders, schools, hospitals public realm improvements and so on. A good set of reforms would have improved so many lives.
-- Claire Coutinho, June 27th, 2025
https://twitter.com/ClaireCoutinho/status/1938513471848468903
