MPs, UNIONS and charities joined forces in denouncing the ferocious attack on the disabled launched by ministers today.

Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall made the government’s long-trailed announcement of cuts to the benefits budget for the disabled.

She told MPs that the government is looking to make savings of £5 billion a year from the welfare budget by the end of the decade.

It is a sum which will go some way to meeting Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s pledged increase in military spending over the same period, a clear indication of government priorities.

Independent MP Jeremy Corbyn said: “This is a seminal moment: a Labour government cutting disability benefits.

“Not just continuing Tory levels. Cutting. These cuts are disgraceful — and will cost lives.”

The warning that the cuts will have literally fatal consequences was echoed by presently whipless MP John McDonnell.

He told Ms Kendall in the Commons: “Trying to find up to £5bn worth of cuts by manipulating personal independence payment rules will result in immense suffering and — we’ve seen it in the past — loss of life.”

Disquiet on Labour benches ran far beyond those whom ministers would discount as “usual suspects.” 

In a powerful intervention, Clive Lewis claimed the government failed to understand “the pain and difficulty that this will cause millions of people who are using food banks, people who are on the brink.

“My constituents are very angry about this and they do not think this is the kind of action that a Labour government takes,” he said.

Loyalist Debbie Abrahams said “there are alternative, more compassionate ways to balance the books rather than on the back of sick and disabled people” and urged a rethink.

Trade unions amplified the political concerns.   

Transport union RMT general secretary Eddie Dempsey warned that the cuts would target the disabled, their carers, the jobless and those in insecure work.

He told Labour: “There is an enormous amount of wealth in this country and the Labour government should be using the economic levers at their disposal to capture it from the rich.”

National Education Union general secretary Daniel Kebede called the move “simply indefensible.”

He said: “It is hard to conceive of a Labour government treating the most vulnerable members of society any worse.

“Cruelty is becoming a hallmark of this government.”

Fire Brigades Union general secretary Steve Wright called on Labour MPs to vote against what he called “a Thatcherite assault on the welfare state.

“Backbench Labour MPs must oppose these cuts and demand that ministers introduce a wealth tax to fund public services,” he said.

PCS general secretary Fran Heathcote said: “Targeting the most vulnerable with benefit cuts to meet arbitrary fiscal rules is an immoral choice at any time, but at a time of rising poverty, long NHS waiting lists and when the cost-of-living crisis continues to bite is abhorrent.”

TUC general secretary Paul Nowak pleaded with ministers to “reconsider the scale of the proposed cuts” and added: “Disabled people who are unable to work must not be pushed into further hardship.”

And Scottish TUC leader Roz Foyer said: “These are reforms that could well have been delivered with a blue rosette. It’s a short-sighted, reactionary decision.”

Calling for a wealth tax, Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “We must be protecting the most vulnerable in society and not pitting the poorest against the poorest.”

Unison general secretary Christina McAnea called the cuts a “false economy” and warned that “going after disabled people and vulnerable families is not the way to get the UK economy back on track.”

Charities also slammed the cuts. Charles Gillies, policy co-chair at the umbrella Disability Benefits Consortium, said: “These immoral and devastating benefits cuts will push more disabled people into poverty, and worsen people’s health.

“We are united in urging the government to abandon these cruel cuts.”

And James Taylor, executive director at Scope, said that “the biggest cuts to disability benefits on record should shame the government to its core.”

For the Tories, shadow welfare secretary Helen Whatley claimed the cuts did not go far enough.

The package constitutes the biggest crisis Sir Keir has faced yet among his increasingly alienated backbench MPs.