Will Tower Hamlets MPs vote for welfare cuts?

THE STARMER Government is planning to reduce public expenditure by cutting welfare benefits and restricting the number of people who can apply or them.

This has come as a surprise to quite a number of Labour MPs, and some members, who thought that they were entering Parliament in order to cut poverty, not increase it. Some of them have made their dismay known within the Labour Party, and some are so incensed that they have said publicly that they will not vote for cuts in benefits.

This has encouraged Tower Hamlets Trades Council to lead a campaign to encourage three local MPs to declare that they will vote against the proposed cuts.

Apsana Begum speaking out on pensions and benefit cuts, House of Commons.
See the full speech on: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=452855596570029

Apsana Begum MP, Poplar & Limehouse
Voters already know that Apsana won’t vote for cuts in welfare benefits, as early in this Parliament she voted against the Tory cap which limited benefits to a maximum of two children per family. This saw her removed from the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP), the Group of Labour MPs.
You can send her a message of congratulation to:
apsana.begum.mp@parliament.uk

Pictured left to right: A Newham constituent; Glyn Robbins, Secretary, Tower Hamlets Trades Council; Uma Kumaran, MP for Bow and Stratford; Dr Anna Livingstone, retired local GP and campaigner with Tower Hamlets Keep Our NHS Public.

Uma Kumaran MP, Bow & Stratford
The Trades Council and Bow & Stratford constituents lobbied Uma at Parliament on 21st May. Uma is a longstanding Starmersupporter, but she promised her visitors that she would not support the proposed benefit reforms in their current form.
You can send a message welcoming this promise and urging her to vote against al benefit cuts on:
uma.kumaran.mp@parliament.uk

Rushanara Ali MP in action in the House of Commons

Rushanara Ali MP, Bethnal Green & Stepney
The Trades Council and other residents at the lobby on 21st May were keen to find out what Rushanara intended to do: as she has a government job (she is a Parliamentary Under-Secretary in the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government) which she would have to resign if she wanted to vote against welfare benefit cuts. Children and disabled people will have to pay for Rushanara to keep her job.

Sadly, Rushanra did not attend the lobby. The Trades Council has therefore sent her an Open Letter, which you can read below. You can send Rushanara a message asking her to put her constituents before her career and vote against benefit cuts on:
rushanara.ali.mp@parliament.uk

Open letter to Rushanara Ali MP

Dear Rushanara Ali MP

OPEN LETTER: Don’t back warfare over welfare

As groups and individuals who live or work in Tower Hamlets, we are calling on our three MPs to set party loyalties aside. It’s time to put your constituents first.

After 14 years of Tory austerity, many of your constituents voted for you in the hope of change. However, since Labour was elected, things have gone from bad to worse for many people in Tower Hamlets. Ours was already the London borough with the highest poverty and child poverty rates, and the highest income deprivation.1 Recent soaring rents, energy and water bills, together with higher food prices, have hit our people hard.

We are dismayed that instead of working to tackle these problems, the Labour government has instead continued with policies that hit people on the lowest incomes hardest. This is having a real impact on the area you represent.

We calculate that in Bethnal Green and Stepney at least 3,600 state pensioners lost their Winter Fuel Allowance this year. Labour’s failure to abolish the two-child benefit cap directly affects around 4,785 of the children living in Bethnal Green and Stepney – a constituency where 51.1% of our children are known to be living in poverty – and 18% are affected by the two-child benefit cap.

In March, in a budget where, to put it crudely, the government has chosen warfare over welfare, we are being asked to believe, with no evidence, that major cuts on the way are a positive plan to “get Britain working”.

In Bethnal Green and Stepney, 7,714 people currently get Personal Independence Payment.5 Of these, around 3,145 (40.8%) get PIP for psychiatric disorders – mental health problems, learning disabilities and autism. We are appalled at the new narrative being spun in the media, including by senior Labour politicians, which downplays sickness, disability and psychiatric disorders, fails to recognise how difficult it has always been to claim this benefit, and ignores the toll the process has on people who mostly get precious little support in the community.

Over a quarter of the working age population in Bethnal Green and Stepney (25.1%) relies on Universal Credit. Nationally, 36.5% get the health element, which will be frozen or halved for different groups of claimants from 2026. That would mean that around 9,000 of your constituents, in poor physical and mental health, could now be facing an uncertain future.

Our local schools are already facing a new round of unsustainable cuts and job losses, which will harm our community. In 2025-26, Barts Health NHS Trust plans to make significant cuts via a 2% cut in staff (which would equate to 400 jobs), while East London Foundation Trust is cutting £29m and expects to make 365 staff redundant10 – all bad news for the health and wellbeing of your constituents.

These are real harms and real people. Thousands of them, in your constituency. We insist that you put their needs first when you vote in the House of Commons on these issues. Austerity, welfare cuts and the attack on public services have all been disastrous for Tower Hamlets – and for the country as a whole.

We say:
• Don’t vote for warfare.
• Don’t vote to continue policies that have failed us all for many years.
• Start voting for and promoting the change your government promised.

This open letter calling on Rushanara Ali, MP for Bethnal Green and Stepney, to vote against the Government’s planned welfare cuts has been signed by:
Tower Hamlets Trades Council
Barts Health Unite
UCU New College Poplar
NEU Tower Hamlets
PCS Tower Hamlets
Tower Hamlets Keep Our NHS Public
Medact London
and 108 of her constituents.

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