Labour urges welfare reform rethink © Reuters/ Eddie Keogh The Government is being urged by Labour to abandon their plans for welfare reform after a series of defeats in the Lords. Planned restrictions on employment and support allowance (ESA) affecting cancer patients and the disabled have been overturned by peers considering the Welfare Reform Bill. In addition, a one-year limit on ESA claims has also been rejected with the Government defeated by 234 to 186, majority 48. Labour said the coalition had been defeated for trying to "cross the basic line of British decency" and urged ministers not to try to reinstate the measures in the Commons. Leading medic Lord Patel, an independent crossbench peer, said: "I am sympathetic to cutting the deficit, but I am highly sympathetic to sick and vulnerable people not being subjected to something that will make their lives even more miserable."