Labour Peer Lord Maurice Glasman has hit out at the Government’s “complete failure of strategic planning” after MPs passed the welfare reform bill on its second reading.
Speaking to GB News, Lord Glasman launched a scathing attack on the Government’s reforms, describing them as “a dog’s breakfast”.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s bill passed the second reading, with 335 MPs voting for and 260 voting against, a majority of 75.
Delivering his verdict on the vote, Lord Glasman stated that Labour was “unprepared strategically” for the challenges, and so chose to “start reforming welfare”.
Labour Peer Lord Maurice Glasman hit out at Labour’s ‘complete failure of strategic planning’
GB News
Lord Glasman called for a complete overhaul of state priorities, outlining his vision for national renewal.
“There’s got to be a fundamental re-think of the foundations of the state, and what are the priorities of the state,” he stated.
The peer argued that the current approach lacks strategic direction: “This situation is there doesn’t seem to be any strategic vision right now for how to reform the state,” he said, whilst acknowledging the government had encountered “conservative resistance” to their reforms.
Lord Glasman expressed disbelief at current disability statistics amongst young people.
“The idea that, what is it? 40 per cent of 18 to 24-year-olds are in some way disabled, is just an insane proposition,” he stated.
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MPs passed the second reading of Labour’s welfare reform bill, with 335 voting for and 260 voting against
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His vision for welfare reform centres on universal participation: “My idea was, you don’t give people free stuff. Everybody contributes and works. That’s got to be the foundation of this,” Lord Glasman explained.
The peer predicted internal Labour tensions over welfare reform, warning of a “proper political battle inside Labour”.
He told GB News: “Suddenly, Labour MPs are looking at the fact that they’re going to lose their seats. That adds another dynamic to the matter. It’s a complete failure of strategic planning.
“What’s going to happen now is a there’s was going to be, I can assure you, a genuine political argument within the party.”
Lord Glasman said the argument within the Labour Government has ‘only just begun’
GB News
Glasman predicted: “I don’t imagine that this argument is over, it’s only just begun.”
Calling for the Government to “abolish the treasury”, Lord Glasman concluded: “I don’t think Morgan McSweeney is under threat at all, but I think I would abolish the Treasury.
“I’d just get rid of the Treasury because it’s an impediment to industrial growth, and it’s full of useless neoclassical economists who don’t understand the first thing about industry.
“This whole welfare explosion is to deal with the lack of work, so what I’m talking about, my vision for the party on the back of the defence spending which we have committed to, and it’s going to be four per cent by the end of the Parliament, at least that’s the basis of an industrial strategy. That industrial strategy is fundamental to the direction.”