Party’s longest-serving MP says she agrees with Ed Balls and Andy Burnham, who have criticised planned welfare cuts

Cutting benefits for disabled people is “not a Labour thing to do”, Diane Abbott has said, as a backlash grows within the party over a planned overhaul of the welfare system which could mean hundreds of thousands of claimants lose money.

Abbott, the party’s longest-serving MP, warned that over time, many voters would look at policies such as cuts to benefits “and think, is this my Labour party?”