28/06/2025
The Week in Westminster
BBC
4.0 • 258 Ratings
🗓️ 28 June 2025
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Ben Riley-Smith of The Daily Telegraph assesses the latest developments at Westminster.
He discusses the government's u-turn on its cuts to disability benefits with Anna Dixon, one of the 127 Labour MPs who had threatened to rebel and Jonathan Ashworth, Sir Keir Starmer’s shadow work and pensions secretary who now runs the Labour Together think tank.
Cathy Ashton, Labour peer and former EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Sir Mark Lyall Grant, former British Ambassador to the UN and former National Security Adviser discuss this week's NATO summit and the Iran-Israel conflict. Sir Dieter Helm, Professor of Economic Policy at Oxford University and an expert on climate and the environment looks at the Climate Change Committee’s annual review on progress towards net zero.
And, Angela Rayner stood in for Keir Starmer at PMQs for the second week in a row. To discuss what it is like to stand in at PMQs, Ben spoke to Sir Oliver Dowden, who as Rishi Sunak's deputy often faced Angela Rayer across the despatch box and Dame Emily Thornberry, who stood in for Jeremy Corbyn when he was Opposition leader.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts. |
| 0:04.8 | This is Ben Riley Smith from The Daily Telegraph with The Week in Westminster. |
| 0:09.4 | You turn if you want to, but if you would listen to Sakeer Stama on Tuesday, you would have been in no doubt. |
| 0:15.6 | He was pushing ahead with his welfare cuts. |
| 0:18.7 | By then, more than 100 Labour MPs were backing an attempt to block the legislation, |
| 0:23.3 | a rebellion easily big enough to force a defeat. |
| 0:26.6 | But when the Prime Minister spoke to the BBC, he was defiant. |
| 0:30.3 | We've got to press on with these reforms. |
| 0:32.3 | The current system isn't working. |
| 0:33.5 | And in the end, it's a stark choice. |
| 0:35.4 | You either remain with a system which is broken and isn't working and traps people, |
| 0:40.3 | or we reform it and make sure that it's fit for the future. |
| 0:43.3 | And the very next week, we're going to vote, press on with the vote, |
| 0:45.8 | you're going to press on with the reform. |
| 0:47.1 | Skip forward to Thursday night. |
| 0:49.1 | When around about midnight, an email pinged into Labour MP's inboxes. |
| 0:53.6 | It was Liz Kendall, the work and pension |
| 0:55.7 | secretary, writing to say she was junking large parts of that very same package. Gone was the plan |
| 1:02.7 | to cut disability benefits for current recipients. Instead, the lower payments would only apply to new |
| 1:09.1 | claimants. It was an undeniable victory for the Labour rebels |
| 1:13.3 | who had strong-armed ministers into backing down. |
| 1:17.1 | Liz Kendall put on a brave face when selling the U-turn on Friday. |
... |
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