Starmer Swings From Defiance to Deal-Making to Save Welfare Bill

Keir Starmer has pivoted to deal-making mode in a bid to stave off a damaging defeat on welfare cuts that are key to his chancellor’s efforts to balance the UK books.

When the prime minister first learned that over one hundred of his own Members of Parliament supported a plan to kill his government’s bill implementing the changes to disability benefits, he was defiant, according to people familiar with the matter, who spoke anonymously about discussions that took place behind close doors.