SOLOMON HUGHES recommends Sunjeev Sahota’s recent novel set in a trade union election campaign for its fresh approach to what unites and divides workers, but wishes the union backdrop was truer to life
THE present Labour government is planning to make massive cuts to several welfare benefits. Current estimates suggest these cuts range from £3 billion to £10bn.
This government, which claims that all of its actions are guided by improving life for “working people,” wants to get rid of PIP which is a benefit that helps many disabled workers. It is not clear if Labour wants to bring back the barbaric Tory idea of replacing cash payments with vouchers. We should not forget that PIP is a non-means-tested benefit to help disabled people with the extra costs of being disabled.
John Pring, editor of the Disability News Service using a freedom of information request has obtained a copy of a three-year-old Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) report, Triggers to Claiming Personal Independence Payment (PIP). This totally undermines the arguments in favour of making cuts to PIP. Hence why both Tory and now Labour ministers are refusing to let this report be made available to the public.
The government’s retreat on PIP still leaves 150,000 new universal credit claimants facing halved benefits from April 2026, creating a discriminatory two-tier welfare system that campaigners must continue fighting, writes DR DYLAN MURPHY
A new report by Amnesty International pulls no punches in highlighting the Labour government’s human rights violations of those on benefits, says Dr DYLAN MURPHY



