Tony Blair's decision to take the lead in the debate on welfare reform follows weeks of criticism from all sides for cutting lone parent benefits, and for apparently considering reducing payments to the sick and disabled.

It will be taken in some quarters as a sign of frustration with how the issues have been presented, and even as a vote of no confidence in his beleaguered Social Security Secretary, Harriet Harman, who has endured bruising Commons encounters with unhappy backbenchers.

Accusations of 'salami-slicing''

The Conservatives challenged the Government to produce a detailed consultation paper on its reform package - and claimed Labour was saving money now to go on a vote-buying "spending spree" before the next election.

Harman: harangued by all parties over welfare plans

The Shadow Social Security Secretary, Iain Duncan Smith, said Mr Blair spoke of "high-flown reform" but so far there had been only a Treasury-driven review, indiscriminately "salami-slicing" the welfare budget and hitting "the most needy and vulnerable in society."

The Liberal Democrats warned the Prime Minister could not go on "for ever taking over every issue just because it becomes difficult."

Their Social Security spokesman, David Rendel, added that Mr Blair's decision to lead a new ministerial group "shows he recognises the Government has made a real mess of welfare reform up to now - and in a sense that recognition is good news."

Mr Rendel accepted the need for reform if it cut out fraud and ensured money went to the most needy, "but not if it means cutting the benefits of those who, through no fault of their own, are already among the poorest people in the country."

Labour opposition to disability benefit cuts

Labour politicians have said they would oppose cuts in disability benefit.

Neil Gerrard, MP for Walthamstow, told the BBC: "Further cuts, especially if they are aimed at disabled people, would see a bigger majority of the public opposed."

A strong majority of the public, according to opinion polls, opposed cuts to lone parent benefit - originally a Conservative policy which the Labour Government is implementing.

Mr Gerrard believed more Labour MPs would make their opposition public if specific cuts were proposed in disabled people's benefits.

There was a distinction between cutting welfare spending by getting people into work and tackling the wasting of money on housing benefit, and the money paid to individuals, he said.

Even the Chairman of the Parliamentary Labour Party, Clive Soley, has said the Government should think more carefully about the impact of its shake-up of the welfare state.

In an interview with the BBC, he said the Labour had lost direction over its plans to cut back on benefit payments to single parents and the disabled.
 

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