Keir Starmer Endures Rebellion in Parliament Over Welfare Cuts

Prime Minister Keir Starmer of Britain on Tuesday faced his biggest parliamentary rebellion since he came to power a year ago when a significant number of his own lawmakers voted against landmark changes to the social welfare system.

Although Mr. Starmer won a vote in Parliament by 335 to 260 to advance the bill, he emerged with a weakened leadership after a public display of deep division within his governing Labour Party and a week of internal feuding over the plans.

The proposals were designed to cut the country’s spiraling welfare costs by raising the eligibility requirements for payments to disabled people. That was expected to affect hundreds of thousands of Britons, and last week the government conceded to pressure from its own lawmakers — more than 120 of whom threatened to torpedo the legislation — by promising the changes would apply only to new claimants.

That concession alone meant the welfare changes will save only about 2 billion pounds ($2.7 billion) a year rather than the £4.8 billion they were expected to yield by 2030, presenting a challenge for Rachel Reeves, the chancellor of the Exchequer.

The fact that only 335 lawmakers supported the bill, when there are more than 400 Labour members of Parliament, will be a jolt to Mr. Starmer. The rebellion would have been worse had the prime minister not offered concessions that critics claimed gutted the bill. But having achieved a victory of sorts, he will hope to push the legislation through its remaining stages in the House of Commons next week.

The furor over the planned cuts in Britain contrasts with those in the United States, where there has been little momentum behind any party opposition to a Republican marquee bill that would slash hundreds of billions of dollars in food benefits and remove, by some estimates, nearly 11 million people from the health care rolls.