CHANGE is always uncomfortable and often very difficult to embed. It’s made all the harder for a Labour government that is subject to a media pack that seems to revel in anger and division.

But the government will not be blown off course. The welfare system, designed by the previous government, is broken and is failing society. It traps millions into it, tells them the only way to get help is to declare they’ll never work again — and then abandons them. We cannot accept that.

Society cannot afford it, and we need to start fixing it. For too long now, meaningful reform of a failing system has been ducked or delayed. That’s not the fair or progressive thing to do. I am very pleased that the Government listened to concerns raised by myself and Cornish colleagues over several months and made substantial changes to the Bill.

The package that's within the Bill now provides dignity for those unable to work, supports those who can work and will, and reduces anxiety for anyone currently in the system, including: ending the indignity of those with severe conditions being put through endless degrading reassessments; the biggest boost to out-of-work support since 1980 – including the biggest ever permanent boost to the base rate of Universal Credit - putting hundreds of pounds in the pockets of low-income families; lifting 50,000 children out of poverty; and record employment support to help sick and disabled people into work, reduce the disability employment gap and reduce poverty.

The new PIP Review will make sure that the PIP assessment is fair and fit for the future – reflecting the reality of people’s conditions and their goals and ambitions – taking account of changes in society since it was first devised and introduced. The Government has committed to engaging widely at pace to design the process for its work and is, vitally, also committed to co-producing the review with disabled people, organisations that support them, clinicians, other experts and MPs.

Draft regulations for the new Right to Try Guarantee have been laid in Parliament. This will, for the first time, enshrine in law the right for people receiving health and disability benefits to try work without fear of reassessment. To help those who can work get into work, the government will: rebalance payments in Universal Credit and deliver the first ever sustained, above-inflation rise to Universal Credit which will equate to a cash increase of around £725 per year for a single household aged 25-plus.

There will always be those who want more or those who want to go back to the broken system, but I’m afraid we have to reform the system and we’re not going to duck the hard decisions. There will always be those who will claim that I’m ‘just going along with government policy’.

They are wrong. I genuinely believe that for too long we’ve had governments that have avoided making the change the country needs. This Government will not avoid these decisions and I support that.