Only the Conservatives will do what's needed on welfare

Telegraph

7 hours ago

The UK is in a welfare crisis. About 23 per cent of the working-age population are on welfare and more than half of all households receive more in benefits than they pay in taxes.
Keir Starmer is too weak to make even minor cuts to Britain's ballooning welfare bill. And, as the Prime Minister's reputation continues to nosedive, Nigel Farage smells blood and is attacking Labour from the Left, promising to scrap the two-child benefit cap.
Both Labour and Reform are more interested in the politics than the enormous amounts of taxpayers' money involved, and neither is serious about doing what's necessary to get Britain back to work.
Only the Conservatives are prepared to take the tough decisions to bring a rampant welfare budget under control. And we need to.
By 2030, one in every four pounds raised through income tax will be spent on health and disability benefits – more than the entire UK defence budget – and that's excluding all the other benefits.
We need a totally different approach. One that ensures things are easier for the makers – the people who work hard, create wealth and jobs, and deliver frontline public services.
Currently this country has too many people who are taking – from those who sit at home with the curtains drawn while others go to work; to those who skip the queue and arrive here illegally, only to be given privileged access to social housing, the NHS and our generous benefits system.
This isn't fair on those who are working hard to pay their taxes, and it isn't fair on those with serious disabilities who understandably rely on government support.
Britain needs real welfare reform if we're to incentivise takers to become makers, and stop the takers taking from the disabled.
We need a fundamental rethink about which conditions should qualify for long-term financial support. The majority of new disability claims in this country are now for mental health conditions – and more often than not for less severe conditions like anxiety. There has been a 70 per cent rise in the number of people in contact with mental health services in England over the last eight years.
In 2023, the shadow chancellor Mel Stride, then work and pensions secretary, announced changes to the Work Capability Assessment – the test that determines if people are able to work – that would have saved around £5 billion from the welfare budget.
Labour scrapped that reform, meaning 450,000 more people will now be left on long-term sickness benefits.
Research published last week by the Centre for Social Justice think tank showed that by narrowing eligibility for certain benefits – focusing support on those with more severe mental health conditions – we could save up to £7.4 billion a year from the welfare bill.
And new findings by the Taxpayers' Alliance highlight the enormous sums of money spent on the motability scheme, including for conditions such as acne and food intolerances.
The Labour government's original welfare proposals were only forecast to save £4.8 billion by 2029/30, from a health and disability benefits bill that is set to exceed £100 billion.
Starmer's humiliating concessions to bring his rebellious party back in line haven't only removed any savings – in fact they might end up actually costing us – they also tell us that his Government is structurally incapable of making the changes we desperately need to bring the ballooning welfare bill under control.
The country cannot afford Starmer's concessions. Alongside the winter fuel U-turn, rising unemployment, and the slowdown in economic growth after the high tax, high borrowing budget, Rachel Reeves is staring at an enormous black hole in the public finances.
Any responsible party would be looking at the welfare budget for savings. But Labour and Reform are not responsible parties. Indeed, Labour has already spent the savings it has now abandoned – meaning tax rises this Autumn seem inevitable.
The Conservative Party is under new leadership, my leadership, and we will now push our own amendments to Labour's welfare bill that make it clear the Government are not going far enough, that their approach of tinkering around the edges of welfare is not grasping the scale of the problem or the costs involved, and that with every concession and U-turn they're dooming more and more people to a life stuck on benefits.
This is not just the responsible thing to do, it is the right thing to do. We need to rebalance our welfare system so that it works for the most vulnerable and stops those who seek to exploit our generosity, whether knowingly or otherwise.
The Conservatives will not stand idly by while Labour and Reform engage in a race to the bottom on benefits. We will show the country that we are on the side of the makers, not the takers.