Chancellor says current welfare system ‘is not working for anyone’ after reports of unease within the Labour cabinet

Good morning. Keir Starmer is likely to spend much of today preparing for the online summit of European leaders who might be part of the “coalition of the willing” prepared to help contribute to Ukraine’s defence in the event of a peace deal. But Russia’s response to the US/Ukraine ceasefire plan has not been promising, as Jakub Krupa reports on his Europe live blog, where he is covering all today’s developments in this story.

Domestically, it is not much easier for the PM either. This morning we learned that the economy shrank in January. Julia Kollewe is covering all this in detail on the business live blog.

During the cabinet meeting, ministers voiced their frustration that such difficult welfare cuts are coming so soon after the raid on the aid budget, according to the people. They said how difficult the cuts would be to sell to the Labour parliamentary party.

One person said some ministers are on resignation watch, depending on the shape of the final package. A Labour lawmaker said Anneliese Dodds – who quit as development minister after the aid cut – won’t be the last to leave government as politicians are asked to stomach difficult cuts. A third person noted that Labour was planning a benefit cut that even George Osborne, the architect of the most recent phase of Conservative austerity, didn’t make.

We will set out our plans for welfare reform, but it is absolutely clear that the current system is not working for anyone.

It is not working for people who need support, it’s not working to get people into work so that more people can fulfil their potential, and it’s not working for the taxpayer when the bill for welfare is going up by billions of pounds in the next few years.