Labour backbenchers could resign this afternoon as Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ prepares to make further welfare cuts. This follows the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) rejecting the government’s assessment that the measures will save £5 billlion. The original changes, outlined by Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall, include tightening the eligibility for Personal Independence Payments (PIP), scrapping work capability assessments, freezing the health element rates of Universal Credit, and ramping up health work assessments to force those claiming benefits to prove they cannot work.

Labour says the changes would put the welfare system “back on a more susta inable path” as the measures are expected to save more than £5 billion. However, the OBR calculated the value of the cuts to be £3.4bn, leading to ministers scrambling to find extra savings.

The Chancellor is now expected to announce that Universal Credit incapacity benefits for new claimants will be frozen until 2030. It is also reported by The Times that there will be a small reduction in the basic rate of Universal Credit in 2029. The new measures are expected to raise £500 million.

Sir Keir Starmer could face a renewed backlash from within the party following widespread anger from Labour backbenchers over the cuts.

The Guardian’s political editor, Pippa Crerar, wrote on X this morning that the prime minister is on “high alert”.

She said: “Labour leadership was already braced for frontbench resignations over welfare cuts when vote comes: but now on high alert.”

Labour MP Debbie Abrahams is among those who have raised concerns. She has begged the Government not to “balance the books on the backs of the sick and disabled”.

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Norwich South MP Clive Lewis also questioned whether Ms Kendall’s DWP understood the impact of the changes.

He said: “When she made the decision to go down this route, did they understand the pain and difficulty that this will cause millions of people, millions of our constituents who are using food banks, who are using social supermarkets, people who are on the brink?”

Unite General Secretary Sharon Graham echoed this, claiming the Government is in “danger of making the wrong choices.”

The spring statement was meant to be a low-key affair following the Chancellor’s commitment to doing only one proper budget each year.

Shadow Chancellor Mel Stride has urged Ms Reeves to “use the emergency budget” to “fix her own mistakes and end Labour’s war on enterprise”.