Welfare Reform Bill

Before I begin the remarks that I intended to make, I must respond to the accusation by the right hon. Member for Maidenhead (Mrs. May), who was critical of the Government's pace in moving people from incapacity benefit into work. Everyone in the House, including Labour Members, would have liked to see more people getting off incapacity benefit and into work. I would passionately have wanted more disabled people to get into work, because that is what they want. They have been written off for too long, and perhaps not enough of them have got into work as a result of the activities of this Government. However, it is worth remembering that while the pace of change may not have been great enough, and perhaps not enough people have made the transition from benefits into work, sizeable numbers have done so, whereas under the last Tory Government there were precisely none. No one moved from incapacity benefit into work as a result of anything that that Government did. Instead, those who had been long-term unemployed were moved off the unemployment register on to incapacity benefit, and left there with no engagement from the state—the Department of Social Security, as it was then called—or anyone else. They were left to fester until they died or retired. While we may have wanted the Government to go much further, much faster, we cannot take any lessons from the Conservative party, because we have done a great deal.