A Welsh Labour MP told BBC Wales he is “very concerned” about planned cuts to welfare expected in the coming weeks.
Montgomeryshire and Glyndwr MP Steve Witherden has called on the UK government to introduce a wealth tax as it looks to make savings.
Witherden said he had specific concerns about any changes to Personal Independence Payments, or PIP, and he did not want disabled people’s ability to work jeopardised.
Earlier this week Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said the current benefits system was unsustainable, indefensible and unfair and the government could not “shrug its shoulders and look away”.
He added that the welfare system was “the worst of all worlds”, discouraging people from working while producing a “spiralling bill”.
Witherden is the first Welsh Labour MP to speak out against the potential cuts, but said it was too early to say if he would rebel in a Commons vote.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves has earmarked draft cuts of several billion pounds to welfare and other UK government departments ahead of the Spring Statement towards the end of the month.
The UK government faces a challenge to convince its own MPs that the level of Personal Independence Payments (PIP) – which are not means tested and are made to people who have a long-term physical or mental health condition – ought to change, and future eligibility restricted.
Some people receiving PIP are in work and would argue the payments provide essential support enabling them to stay there.
Witherden said: “If you think of things like a mobility car, it’s the PIP that is enabling some disabled people to continue to work, so I don’t think we would want to see anything that would jeopardise or undermine anything that facilitates or enables disabled people to get work and stay in work.
“There is a lot of concern out there from disabled constituents in Montgomeryshire and Glyndwr, who are writing to me about the future of PIP.
“People want to stay independent.”
He suggested that ministers should consider introducing a wealth tax as it looks to make savings.
He said: “I was one of the 30 MPs who was a signatory to an open letter calling for a wealth tax in this country, a tax on extreme wealth.
“Four Britons have more wealth than 20 million Britons combined, so I think there are solutions available out there to us and a wealth tax would be one of them.”
Witherden was invited to a meeting at Downing Street with the prime minister’s policy team on Thursday, but was unable to attend because of constituency business.
The UK government is expected to publish its proposals for change in a green paper on welfare next week, with full details at the Chancellor’s Spring Statement on 26 March.
The welfare bill is large and projected to grow.
Last year, the UK government spent £65bn on sickness benefits and that figure is forecast to increase by tens of billions before the next general election.
Witherden was the first Labour MP in history to win the old Montgomeryshire constituency in the 2024 general election, with a majority of just under 4,000 over Reform UK.
