ONLY one MP broke the new Labour-Tory consensus on welfare reform to insist the proposals were too weak – Birkenhead’s Frank Field.

The former welfare reform minister argued the latest crackdown would make little difference.

Mr Field said the government was making the same mistake as previous welfare reform packages, by leaving in place a higher benefit for the long-term sick and disabled.

As long as that was the case, the inevitable human temptation would be to aim for the higher benefit, rather than accept a lower rate and look for work, he said.

The Birkenhead MP has argued for a single benefit for all with the extra cost of incapacity met through disability living allowance, not benefits.

This would scrap the distinction between the “un- employed” and the “incap- acitated” – a dis- tinction that allowed many to believe they could not work.

Mr Field said: “I have lost count of the number of occasions the government has published what it thinks are tough proposals and for very little to happen.”

But Chris Grayling, the Tory work and pensions spokesman, said: “There is a consensus between the government and ourselves on welfare reform. We will not go as far as Frank Field, however.”