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You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/oct/07/john-mcdonnell-says-universal-credit-needs-to-get-scrapped-benefits
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| John McDonnell says universal credit needs to be scrapped | John McDonnell says universal credit needs to be scrapped |
| (about 1 hour later) | |
| The shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, has said should be scrapped following warnings that millions of families could lose as much as £200 a month under the reformed benefits system. | |
| McDonnell hardened the party’s position on universal credit in a television interview on Sky News, during which he also said that austerity was deepening contrary to claims Theresa May made in her party conference speech. | |
| “I think we are at that stage where it’s not sustainable any more. It’s not a system that can work, it’s not a system that is providing that safety net,” he said. | |
| According to weekend reports, Esther McVey, the work and pensions secretary, recently briefed cabinet colleagues that half of single parents and about two-thirds of working-age couples with children would lose the equivalent of £2,400 a year. | |
| McDonnell said: “We’ve looked and looked, we can’t see that either government’s or other proposals could reform it. It’s in shambles, and it’s actually iniquitous as well. To have government ministers being privately briefed that families are going to lose £200 a month, it’s just not acceptable.” | McDonnell said: “We’ve looked and looked, we can’t see that either government’s or other proposals could reform it. It’s in shambles, and it’s actually iniquitous as well. To have government ministers being privately briefed that families are going to lose £200 a month, it’s just not acceptable.” |
| Brandon Lewis, the Conservative party chairman, struggled to address the issue of benefit cuts shortly afterwards in a BBC interview. The cabinet minister did not address the issue of financial impacts directly, and sought to defend the system more broadly. | Brandon Lewis, the Conservative party chairman, struggled to address the issue of benefit cuts shortly afterwards in a BBC interview. The cabinet minister did not address the issue of financial impacts directly, and sought to defend the system more broadly. |
| “As you move onto universal credit, the system looks at the individual and comes up with an approach to somebody’s needs,” Lewis told BBC’s Andrew Marr. | “As you move onto universal credit, the system looks at the individual and comes up with an approach to somebody’s needs,” Lewis told BBC’s Andrew Marr. |
| He added that universal credit had been rolled out slowly in the UK – including his Great Yarmouth constituency – and the system was “getting more people into work in a sustainable way”. | He added that universal credit had been rolled out slowly in the UK – including his Great Yarmouth constituency – and the system was “getting more people into work in a sustainable way”. |
| Lewis also hit back at McDonnell, challenging Labour to say how it would reform the benefits system, and noting that the shadow chancellor had advocated simplification of the sort intended by universal credit. “Of course he’s not able to outline what he would do exactly,” the Conservative chairman said. | Lewis also hit back at McDonnell, challenging Labour to say how it would reform the benefits system, and noting that the shadow chancellor had advocated simplification of the sort intended by universal credit. “Of course he’s not able to outline what he would do exactly,” the Conservative chairman said. |
| Earlier, McDonnell had said a “root and branch examination of how we can go forward” was required and “the principle of bringing together benefits in one so it’s a much simpler system is something we all support, but this hasn’t done that”. | |
| Labour has been edging toward advocating the abolition of universal credit, a complex system that merges six existing benefits into a single payment. At the party’s conference in Liverpool last month, McDonnell indicated that a review was likely to conclude that replacement not reform was the answer. On Sky News he went further. “You can’t save the thing, it’s got to go,” he said. | |
| Sir Richard Dearlove, the head of MI6 between 1999 and 2004, had earlier told Sky News that he was concerned about Jeremy Corbyn. | |
| “Someone coming from my background is troubled by Jeremy Corbyn’s past associations, some of which I find surprising and worrying. He may have abandoned them now, but I don’t think you can entirely, as it were, dump your past,” he said. | |
| “He’s enthusiastically associated himself with groups and interests which I would not say were friends of the British nation.” | |
| McDonnell sharply dismissed Dearlove’s comments and described him as “a reactionary member of the establishment”. | |
| “Can I just say to him directly, I think he should spend his retirement in quiet contemplation of the role that he played with regard to the Iraq war where over half a million people at least were killed,” he said. | |
| “He was strongly criticised as the head of an organisation whose intelligence took us into that war, so I think he should have a bit of humility about the judgements he makes about individuals and others in the future.” | |
| Universal credit | Universal credit |
| John McDonnell | John McDonnell |
| Labour | Labour |
| Theresa May | Theresa May |
| Esther McVey | Esther McVey |
| Jeremy Corbyn | |
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