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Order, order.

Hello, I'm Alicia McCarthy,

and this is the today in Parliament podcast from BBC Radio 4

for Tuesday the 1st of July,

where MPs back plans for welfare reform

after a minister dramatically pulls a central part of them.

We've had a passionate and eventful debate.

We have heard, Madam Deputy Speaker, the concerns and the government will amend the bill.

The last-minute concession follows a revolt by Labour backbenchers.

It is with a heavy broken heart that I will be voting against this bill today.

And the twists and turns leave even MPs struggling to keep up.

I popped out for a banana earlier on and when I came back in, things had changed again.

But first, the government's controversial welfare bill has passed its first parliamentary hurdle,

but only after a minister made a major last-minute U-turn on the floor of the House of Commons,

abandoning a central part of the plans.

Ministers had proposed to bring in new tighter criteria for the disability benefit personal independence payments or PIP from November next year.

But now that won't happen, with any changes coming only after a review carried out by the Work and Pensions Minister,

Sir Stephen Tims, alongside disability groups. The welfare bill had already been

rewritten after more than 120 government backbenchers threatened to derail it. To placate them,

the Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall had promised that those currently receiving PIP

payments would be exempt from the changes she wanted to bring in next November.

...