Fundamental rethink of the state is needed after 'dog's breakfast' welfare bill, Lord Glasman says

GB News

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".FULL STORY HERE.

Transcript

00:00That's a significant majority.

00:02But as you say, this no longer is a meaningful vote.

00:06It's just not like that.

00:09It's so confused, so many amendments, so many concessions in this.

00:15And you're right, it's not only this.

00:18It's borders, it's loads of different things, migration going on.

00:24The backlash is already here.

00:26I mean, we're already reformer ahead.

00:28And, you know, and I say this, I'm not going to say I say this with respect,

00:33but I don't, it's just the reality.

00:35The Conservatives aren't even in the conversation at the moment

00:37because of your record during the last government.

00:41So the stakes are enormously high now.

00:44Now, there's one thing that is true, is that Stephen Timms did say

00:47that when this review comes in autumn, so he gave it a specific time.

00:52Now, we can say that autumn's been September and November, more or less.

00:58He's going to have to come up with a very, very serious welfare reform bill.

01:03There's no prospect of delivering it.

01:05There's no prospect now of delivering meaningful welfare reform in this parliament.

01:09They just haven't got the votes.

01:10And actually, you've got a committee and report stage now coming up of a bill

01:14where you presumably have some sort of amendment,

01:16some description come forward from backbenches,

01:19and I think will set a further direction of travel

01:21that just goes completely in the opposite.

01:23You cannot take people where they don't want to go.

01:25I don't know what Alice is, but I can see there are different dynamics at work.

01:27Suddenly, Labour MPs are looking at the fact that they're going to lose their seats.

01:31That adds another dynamic to the matter, and I think, you know what?

01:35That can change people's principles very quickly.

01:38Well, I think if we're going to change the dynamic,

01:40I think we're going to see a reshuffle, is my prediction,

01:42and I think Morgan McSweeney's job is in peril.

01:45I think Rachel Reeves is definitely in danger, and possibly Liz Kendall as well.

01:48And then maybe there's a chance to change the dynamic before autumn.

01:52But yeah, I mean, absolutely right.

01:53This isn't a victory.

01:54This is like they've castrated their own bill.

01:56And what this actually reminds me of, and Tom, you'll remember this,

01:58is when Liz Truss tried to make the fracking bill a sort of confidence motion.

02:02There were these chaotic scenes in the lobbies, whips in tears,

02:05and then eventually she had to pull the whole thing,

02:07and then she quit a few days later.

02:08This is what, with that level of chaos, a year into the Labour government.

02:12I agree with that.

02:12And I think, actually, when you track back what will follow on from today,

02:17the seeds of Keir Starmer's demise have been sown in these few days,

02:21because this has eradicated trust with backbenchers.

02:24You've alienated the whip's office.

02:26You've created a huge public fracker with people alarmed about what's being proposed,

02:32causing massive concern, and that's damaged relationships.

02:35Boris Glassman, I read an excellent interview with yourself in The Times of the weekend,

02:39and, you know, a lot of people watching this show will agree with your vision

02:44of what the Labour Party at least once was,

02:46and that is a party that represented the working classes,

02:49supported them in their darkest hours,

02:51but didn't enable them to sit on their backsides and fester and rot

02:55and drain away from the country.

02:57That's what's just been voted for by your Labour Party.

03:00Let's be brutally honest.

03:01That vote there won't even scratch the surface of the financial and the moral duty

03:08to get people out of this cancerous idea of sitting around and getting handed out.

03:13This has gone the opposite way of your vision for your party.

03:17Yeah, and it's also a complete failure of strategic planning.

03:23I mean, but as I say, this welfare reform was, what was it, 2% of a future increase?

03:29Yes. So, in a way, what's going to happen now is there's going to be, Martin,

03:34I can assure you, a genuine political argument within the party now.

03:38So, for example, I don't think Morgan McSweeney is under threat at all.

03:42I think I would abolish the Treasury.

03:44You know, I'd just get rid of the Treasury because it's...

03:47A lot of ministers are like that.

03:48No, because it's an impediment to industrial growth.

03:51It's full of Osbornomics, it's full of your stuff,

03:55of useless neoclassical economists who don't understand the first thing about industry.

04:00I mean, and how to produce things.

04:02We've lost it.

04:03We've got to look at the tragedy of the last 50 years.

04:06You know, first as farce and then as tragedy.

04:08I mean, Margaret Thatcher decimated our industrial production.

04:12She destroyed our shipbuilding.

04:14She destroyed mining.

04:15She destroyed a very industrial base.

04:18And everything's been coped.

04:19This whole welfare explosion is to deal with the lack of work.

04:23So, when I'm talking about my vision for the party,

04:26on the back of the defence spending, which we have committed to,

04:30and it's going to be 4% by the end of the Parliament at least,

04:33that's the basis of an industrial strategy.

04:35That industrial strategy is fundamental to the direction.

04:39So, don't imagine, Martin, or any of you, that this argument is over.

04:43It's only just begun.

Category

Transcript

Recommended