A Labour minister faced a grilling on BBC Breakfast over welfare reforms ahead of a crunch vote today. Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds was pressed on the Government not doing more to win over backbench rebels.

It comes as Sir Keir Starmer is facing a major revolt on the Bill which has its first Commons hurdle later despite making concessions. Host Jon Kay asked: "What a lot of the rebels are saying is we're not saying don't change it at all but the Government should just have taken longer to do this and carried us with them?"

Mr Reynolds began saying: "I agree..."

The BBC presenter then cut in: "So that was a mistake?"

The Labour MP replied: "They want to reform the system but if we were to completely retreat from this I think we would lose the chance to make any changes for the better whatsoever.

"I think we've got to recognise there's an urgency. Look, for all the money we spend we've got one in eight young people not in employment, education or training.

"We've got three million people out of the workforce because they've got health conditions even though they want to get back into work.

"We've got one in 10 adults of working age in the UK on disability benefits.

"So there's a lot of money going into this and no one's happy with how it's working.

"I think you've got to recognise the case for reform and if we simply said it's too difficult and pull away from it we lose the change to make those changes for the better."