Labour MP Samantha Niblett has backed out of supporting the reasoned amendment for welfare reforms and now refers to it as the ‘wrecking amendment’

Labour MP Samantha Niblett has backed out of supporting the reasoned amendment for welfare reforms and now refers to it as the ‘wrecking amendment’.

Samantha Niblett posted to Facebook:

I’ve written a statement on the current situation on the reasoned amendment on welfare reforms AKA a ‘wrecking amendment’.

I’ve put it into an image so if you need to share it anywhere it’s easier than having a Facebook post.

As I always say politics isn’t perfect and sound bites and misunderstandings - sometimes accidental and sometimes very deliberate to rile people up- tend to own the online space.

So I have tried to explain why I took my name off the wrecking amendment.

And there is nothing in this for me.

By this point I have hacked off government, hacked off those of my colleagues who signed the amendment, hacked off those who haven’t, and most importantly hacked off people who are affected by all of this -and it is to YOU that I am so sorry, sorry that you’re going through the worry of all this.

But the battle continues, and I continue to lobby government to rethink PIP.

Please do read my statement.

Samantha Niblett's letter in full:

Samantha Niblett MP

Member of Parliament for South Derbyshire House of Commons, London SW1A OAA Email: Samantha.niblett.mp@parliament.uk

25 June 2025

On welfare reforms.

I have always been direct and honest with my constituents, and I do not intend to hide away and not explain my actions now.

When I signed the reasoned amendment to the welfare reforms on Monday, I wanted government to take notice of our pleas to review the PIP element of the welfare reforms.

They have certainly noticed.

It is a fact that:

• The welfare state needs reform
• I want government to rethink the PIP element of it

Those two things are not mutually exclusive.

But a reasoned amendment isn't otherwise known as a 'wrecking amendment' for no reason.

If that wrecking amendment works all the good stuff in the reforms goes too.

So I thought long and hard about how best I could advocate for my constituents and concluded that the best course of action was to take my name off the amendment because:

• The stakes are just too high. If this amendment passes, we lose all the good elements of the bill along with the problematic ones. The most vulnerable people who desperately need protection from constant reassessments would remain trapped in the current broken system.
• We have more options. The bill will go to committee stage after second reading, where proper scrutiny and targeted amendments can address the PIP concerns without destroying the entire reform.
• Opposition games and offering to do 'deals' on this bill helps no one but them. The Tories had 14 years to fix welfare - they didn't. And let's not forget they said this Labour Government wasn't going far enough with the welfare reform proposals they wanted deeper cuts!

We have so much to fix. From getting the NHS back on its feet to tackling the immigration crisis and taking opportunity to every part of the country. Delivering on what we heard was being allocated in the spending review, something we can only do by reforming the welfare state too.

So I desperately want government to listen. I have personally pleaded with them to rethink the PIP element and wait to do something on this until we have worked with disabled charities on it, got the impact assessment data in the autumn, and had the OBR employment impact assessment too.

I don't know how I look people in the face, including the some of the many people I have helped bring together for my South Derbyshire SEND Network, disabled people who have come and spoken with me at my surgeries and coffee mornings, and my own mum who would be excluded from a PIP under the new scoring system.

But I also don't how I'd look those people in the face if we risk losing a Labour government Having signed the amendment in the first place my feelings on this are clear.

And there is nothing in this for me. By this point I have hacked off government, hacked off those of my colleagues who signed the amendment, hacked off those who haven't, and most importantly hacked off people who are affected by all of this -and it is to YOU that I am so sorry, sorry that you're going through the worry of all this.

I will keep fighting for disabled people in my constituency. But I won't risk gambling their futures and allow the opposition to then play political games that might risk this Labour government.

Samantha Niblett

Member of Parliament for South Derbyshire

Website: www.samanthaniblett.uk