The Prime Minister is facing a significant rebellion from within the parliamentary party over plans to introduce a new cap on housing benefit payments. At least 34 MPs have signed a letter warning that the policy will push more families into homelessness and calling for the proposal to be withdrawn before it reaches a Commons vote.
The letter, which was sent to the Chief Whip on Wednesday, argues that the cap — which would limit housing benefit to 80 per cent of the local housing allowance in high-cost areas — would affect an estimated 120,000 households, the majority of them families with children.
A Downing Street spokesperson said the Prime Minister was "committed to the policy" and that the government was "confident it has the numbers to pass the legislation." The spokesperson declined to comment on the specific letter or its signatories.
The opposition has said it will vote against the cap and has called on the government's own backbenchers to do the same. Several of the letter's signatories are from constituencies where housing costs are particularly high and where the impact of the cap would be most acute.
The legislation is scheduled for its second reading in three weeks. Whether the rebellion grows or shrinks in the intervening period will depend in part on whether the government offers any concessions — and whether those concessions are enough to satisfy the rebels without alienating the supporters of the policy on the other side of the party.