PRIME MINISTER Sir Keir Starmer’s position is on a knife-edge this evening as MPs prepare to vote on his Bill slashing benefits for disabled people.

Despite concessions designed to divide parliamentary rebels — including a last-minute offer to shelve changes to the Personal Independence Payment (Pip) until after a review — dozens of Labour MPs are still set to defy the whips and vote to stop the Bill.

A large rebellion would severely damage the prime minister’s faltering authority, while defeat would entirely destroy it.   

Most of the Westminster betting this evening is on the government scraping its Bill through with a reduced majority, amid reports of further last-minute concessions being offered.

But many MPs said the concessions were not reflected in the written Bill and they would vote on what was written down, not trusting to ministers’ verbal assurances.

A clearly floundering Welfare Secretary Liz Kendall made almost no progress in convincing concerned MPs when she presented the Bill in the Commons.

She claimed that the government was “not ducking tough challenges” but offered no new changes to legislation which threatens the impoverishment of disabled people in the future.

Moving the amendment to stop the Bill in its tracks, York Central Labour MP Rachel Maskell, a former Unite official, made a passionate speech that won support across the Commons. 

Begging the government to withdraw the Bill, she said that “these Dickensian cuts belong to a different era and a different party.

“They are far from what the Labour Party is for — a party to protect the poor, as is my purpose for I am my brother’s keeper, these are my constituents, my neighbours, my community, my responsibility, and I cannot cross by on the other side for one, let alone for the 150,000 who will be pushed further into poverty.

“There is a reason why we are a dystopian state of excessive wealth and abject poverty. It is because governments focus on what they value most,” which was never disabled people.

“If we can afford not to have a wealth tax” or to properly tax corporations, “we can afford to have Pip payments for the disabled,” Ms Maskell added.

Tory leader Kemi Badenoch called the Bill “a rushed attempt to plug the Chancellor’s fiscal hole. It is driven not by principle but by panic.”

Her three demands for overall support for the government Bill were cutting the overall welfare bill; getting more people into work, and a continuing commitment not to raise taxes.

Labour MPs focused their criticisms on the two-tier nature of the cuts, slashing benefits for future but not present claimants, and for failure to consult with disabled people's organisations, 138 of which have opposed the Bill.

Independent MP Jeremy Corbyn said the Bill “does not come from an understanding of injustice and inequality in our society.  It comes from a desire to save £5bn.”

He urged MPs to respect the Labour Party’s history and traditions by voting against the Bill.

Salford MP Rebecca Long-Bailey reminded MPs that “there are alternatives: introduce higher taxes on extreme wealth; end the stealth subsidies for banks; tax gambling fairly and properly. The list of alternatives is endless.”

And Leeds East MP Richard Burgon warned Labour MPs that if they backed the Bill or abstained, the decision would be an albatross around their necks up until the next election.