British Prime Minister Keir Starmer won a vote on his welfare plans on Tuesday at significant political cost as he suffered the biggest parliamentary rebellion of his premiership and was forced to back down on key parts of the package.

Amid fears of imminent defeat, Starmer authorised a last-minute climbdown. Experts said the emasculated bill, which passed a parliamentary vote on Tuesday evening, could even lose the government money overall after it was initially intended to generate net savings of £5bn.