By Andrew MacAskill, Elizabeth Piper and Alistair Smout LONDON (Reuters) -British Prime Minister Keir Starmer won a vote on his welfare plans on Tuesday but it came with a significant political cost as he suffered the biggest parliamentary rebellion of his premiership and backed down on key elements of the package to secure the bill's passage.

However, t here are doubts over whether the bill, in its current form, will make any significant savings, after a series of government concessions. Prime Minister Keir Starmer was forced to abandon a key plank of his welfare reform package in the face of a Labour rebellion, which would have led to a Commons defeat.

Sir Keir Starmer's controversial welfare bill has passed its first hurdle in the Commons despite a sizeable rebellion from his MPs.