Keir Starmer is at NATO but he faces a crisis back at home

Chapters of Sir Keir Starmer's future memoir will detail how he tried to save Ukraine and stop the Middle East spiralling into even greater carnage - but today he faces a domestic political crisis. Any Labour leader who attempts to get a grip on the country's benefits payments can expect condemnation within his own party. But this time the most serious opposition is not from the far Left.

His plans to cut disability and sickness-related benefits payments are opposed by 108 Labour MPs, including respected committee chairs and leading centrists.

They have put their names to an amendment which would stop the legislation in its tracks, voicing concerns the changes could push 250,000 people into poverty - including 50,000 children.

This is a nightmare situation for the Government's enforcers. The party cannot strip the whip from 108 MPs if they refuse to vote for the Bill.

And, having made their concerns public, the MPs cannot back down unless they are offered major concessions.

Making the case for not going ahead with the cuts now, they point out the Office for Budget Responsibility is "not due to publish its analysis of the employment impact of these reforms until the autumn of 2025". They also note the Government is still waiting on reviews into the Personal Independence Payment and the employment challenges facing disabled people.

This opposition is especially bruising because it follows a series of controversies which have called into question the competence of the Government and whether it has a working moral compass.

Sir Keir last month announced a u-turn on the decision to strip millions of pensioners of their winter fuel payments. There is still outrage that the Government made the shock decisions to hike National Insurance Contributions on employers and hit more farming families with inheritance tax.

The Government knows it is not loved in a country where it won the election with less than 34% of the vote. But it is in dire trouble if voters decide it lacks both the financial acumen and the values needed to restore prosperity to families throughout the UK.

The unrest in Labour ranks suggests some MPs share these concerns about their party leadership.

The irony - as former Chancellor Sir Jeremy Hunt has argued in the Express - is that the Government has a rare opportunity to deliver the welfare reforms the country needs as costs rocket. It has a huge majority and we are a long way off from an election; if ever there was a time to bring spending under control it is now.

If Sir Keir cannot command the confidence of moderate MPs in his own party then the prospects of historic reform look dead. He will have to find another way of earning his place in the history books.