Corbynistas rage at Starmer team’s welfare ‘betrayal’

LABOUR leader Sir Keir Starmer’s new welfare chief faced cries of ‘treachery’ and was accused of copying Donald Trump over claims he was ripping the heart out of Jeremy Corbyn’s benefits promise.

MPs faithful to the former leader reacted in fury after Jonathan Reynolds, Sir Keir’s new Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, appeared to suggest benefits should be based on what people paid into the system.

In an interview, Mr Reynolds said: ‘When people put in, they get the right amount of support out of it. And if you put more in, you get more out of it.’

But Left-wing MPs vented their anger, with one privately branding the idea ‘treacherous’ and another writing: ‘This is the Trump line,’ suggesting Reynolds was following one of the US President’s policies.

One MP told The Mail on Sunday: ‘This is quite simply ditching the core of Jeremy’s policy on benefits, which was universality. This sounds like a bribe to the middle class. People are absolutely livid about it.’

The row comes amid mounting concern that leadership ‘unity candidate’ Sir Keir is now betraying the Corbyn legacy and taking Labour on a sharp ‘lurch to the Right’. Only last month, Left-wing MPs claimed he was already plotting to ditch his predecessor’s £7 billion pledge to abolish university fees.

There are also suspicions another flagship Corbyn policy – renationalising the water industry – will also be dumped in due course. Sir Keir’s office have denied both claims. But moderate MPs are privately jubilant at what they claim is the new leader’s decision to ‘turn his back on the madness of the Corbyn nightmare to try to make us electable’.

Stalybridge and Hyde MP Mr Reynolds served on the previous leader’s frontbench, despite being seen as firmly on the non-Corbyn wing of the party.

I n an i nt ervi ew with Westminster’s The House Magazine, he confessed that he felt much more ideologically ‘at home’ in a Starmer Shadow Cabinet. He said: ‘I want a radical Labour, especially on things like child poverty and people’s pensions and on the economy… but I want that to be credible.’ However, in remarks that prompted outrage from the Left, he suggested a radical change to the Universal Credit and social security system.

Mr Reynolds said: ‘When you’re looking at how you design or change the system going forward, certainly I feel if you have made greater contributions to the system, there is an argument that you should receive more out of that system.’

He added: ‘It doesn’t mean that you will ever be leaving people without support or leaving them destitute. But I simply feel that that lack of a connection between what you put in and what you get out has become a major problem of social security and the political support for it.’

Last night allies of Mr Reynolds insisted his remarks were taken out of context and used by Left-wing critics as an excuse to attack him.