A u-turn from what previous position and by whom? Universal basic income hasn't really been debated seriously in the UK, so nobody had a previous position to u-turn against.
The previous policy has always centered around increasingly aggressive eligibility testing, to the point that the DWP spends more on appeals in an effort to prevent disabled people being able to eat than it would on just paying them the benefits they are entitled to. Then there's the nightmares of "universal" credit.