Skip to main content
Donate to the 95 years appeal
Left MP challenges state snooping on poor

LEFT Labour MP Neil Duncan-Jordan is urging the government to scrap plans to grab new powers to spy on bank accounts and disqualify people who owe money to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) from driving.

He is tabling amendments to the Public Authorities (Fraud, Error and Recovery) Bill, which carry forward Tory proposals for mass-scale financial surveillance, using banks to snoop on their customers supposedly to root out welfare overpayments.

Mr Duncan-Jordan said: “I urge ministers to take a step back and look at the message they are sending to welfare recipients and disabled people.

“One week, our Labour government is pushing the largest cuts to disability benefits in a generation; the next, it is calling for mass financial surveillance of millions of people.

“This undermines the principle of the welfare state as a safety net that upholds dignity and respect by providing support when needed — by affording welfare recipients less right to privacy than everyone else,” he added, accusing ministers of pandering to the right-wing media.

Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
Similar stories
WAR ON CLAIMANTS: Liz Kendall outside the Department of Work and Pensions, March 2025
Features / 20 May 2025
20 May 2025

While claiming to target fraud, Labour’s snooping Bill strips benefit recipients of privacy rights and presumption of innocence, writes CLAUDIA WEBBE, warning that algorithms with up to 25 per cent error rates could wrongfully investigate and harass millions of vulnerable people

A Universal Credit sign on a door of a job centre plus in ea
Britain / 22 January 2025
22 January 2025
Campaigners warn DWP proposals could be counterproductive and create a two-tier justice system