Sir Keir Starmer has said his welfare reforms now strike “the right balance” after he U-turned in the face of a major backbench rebellion. Speaking for the first time after Downing Street agreed a series of concessions on its welfare policy, the prime minister said the climbdown followed a “constructive discussion” with Labour rebels. Report by Covellm. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
00:00It's very important that we reform the welfare system because it doesn't work and it traps people and therefore we're going to press ahead with the reforms and the principles are if you can work you should work, if you need help getting into work you should have that help and support, but if you can't work and there's no prospect of working then you must be protected.
00:23We need to get it right, that's why we've been talking to colleagues and having a constructive discussion. We've now arrived at a package that delivers on the principles with some adjustments and that's the right reform and I'm really pleased now that we're able to take this forward.
00:39The changes still mean we can deliver the reform that we need and that's very important because the system needs to be a system that is fit for the future and this system isn't fit for the future and all colleagues are signed up to that but having listened we've made the adjustments, the funding will be set out in the budget in the usual way as you'd expect later in the year,
00:59but the most important thing is that we can make the reform we need, we talk to colleagues who've made powerful representations as a result of which we've got a package which I think will work and we can get it right and for me getting that package adjusted in that way is the right thing to do, it means it's the right balance and it's common sense that we can now get on with it.
