PRIME Minister Sir Keir Starmer is struggling to keep the lid on a mounting rebellion among backbench Labour MPs over his planned attack on welfare.

Dozens of MPs are not buying his argument that massive cuts are justified because the welfare system is “unsustainable, indefensible and unfair.”

The PM is targeting benefits for disabled people in particular, with Welfare Secretary Liz Kendall expected to outline plans for spending reductions next week.

But Labour MPs are deeply divided on the issue, with many warning of the consequences of the planned cuts, which coincide with enormous increases in military spending.

As the Morning Star reported this week, York MP Rachael Maskell said that “draconian cuts” risked “pushing disabled people into poverty.”

She said there was “deep, deep concern” among Labour MPs and called on the party to “hold on to our values.”

Poole MP Neil Duncan-Jordan has also made it clear that he could not back “a rerun of austerity” adding: “If we are going to make poor people poorer then there will be a number of MPs who won’t be able to sign up to that.”

Hackney MP Diane Abbott said she and other colleagues were denied entry to a meeting with Sir Keir in Parliament on Monday as it was supposedly full. 

She posted on X today: “I would have liked to query Keir Starmer… about the impact of his proposed cuts to welfare.

“Keen on dissent in other countries. Not so much here.”

A group of Labour MPs have already come together to back the cuts.

A new Get Britain Working group of 36 MPs claimed in a letter to Ms Kendall that the government has a “moral duty” to help long-term sick and disabled people to work if they can.

But even a former aide to Tony Blair, John McTernan, warned that ministers were on the wrong track.

He said the government was “confusing the categories of long-term sickness and disability” and had already “tested the public’s patience when it took winter fuel payments from 10 million pensioners with no warning.”

James Watson-O’Neill, chief executive of disability charity Sense, also slammed the plans, saying “cutting benefits will have a devastating impact on disabled people and their families.

“Making it harder to access benefits won’t help disabled people find jobs either. It will only deepen the struggle.”