MPS have backed a motion calling on the UK Government to cancel its planned cut to Universal Credit.
Most Conservative MPs, including Simon Hart and Stephen Crabb, abstained from voting, with just four rebelling to back Labour’s motion. 

Labour brought the September 15 vote asking the government to back down from removing the £20 uplift to Universal Credit – introduced at the start of the pandemic – and it was supported by 253 MPs with none voting against.

The non-binding motion couldn’t have forced the government to U-turn on the planned cut but is a statement of opposition from the House of Commons.

Four Conservative MPs rebelled to back Labour’s motion, according to the division list, with the rest abstaining, including Stephen Crabb and Simon Hart.

MPs from neighbouring constituencies, Ben Lake of Ceredigion and Jonathan Edwards of Carmarthen East and Dinefwr backed the motion.

Stephen Crabb, a former Conservative work and pensions secretary, warned the “sudden, abrupt withdrawal” of the £20 uplift “is not the right way of doing welfare policy”.

The Preseli Pembrokeshire MP said: “We shouldn’t make the mistake of overlooking the importance of good welfare policy and it’s not about being wet on fiscal discipline, it’s not about being Labour-lite, it’s actually about recognising what is good, responsible social policy, and I’m clear in my mind that this sudden, abrupt withdrawal of the £20 uplift that millions of families are going to experience in the coming weeks is not the right way of doing welfare policy.”

He added: “Anybody who thinks that we have generous benefits in this country, I’m afraid, is wrong. Either looking at it internationally, looking at it historically, in no way can you describe UK benefits as generous, we don’t have generous benefits.

“I do worry – and it’s come across a little bit in this debate this afternoon – that there’s this view that if you can only just make welfare that bit tougher, that bit more uncomfortable for the families who rely on it, you’ll get better engagement with the labour market, you’ll see more people going out to work. The evidence doesn’t point to that either.”

He said it was his view, “from a while ago” that the level of Universal Credit before the £20 uplift in March 2020 was “too low”.

“One of the reasons why that in-work poverty did increase in the years leading up to the pandemic was, I’m afraid, directly related to the fact that we had frozen the main rate of working age benefits that supported families on low income,” said Mr Crabb.