Kemi Badenoch to demand tougher benefits rules to cut welfare bill
Kemi Badenoch will call for health benefits to be restricted to people with the 'most serious conditions' as Labour's annual spending on welfare could reach £70 billion by 2030.
Listen to this article
In a speech on Thursday, the Tory leader will warn of a “ticking time bomb” of welfare dependency, as Government forecasts suggest annual spending on health and disability benefits could reach £70bn by 2030.
Other projections suggest the figure could go as high as £100 billion, while the Office for Budget Responsibility has warned that failing to cut the rate at which people take up benefits could cost an extra £12 billion.
Setting out her plans for welfare cuts, Mrs Badenoch will say: “We should be backing the makers – rewarding the people getting up every morning, working hard to build our country.
“Our welfare system should look after the most vulnerable in society – not those cheating the system.”
Read more: Starmer's welfare reform Bill scrapes through after last minute concession to rebels
As well as restricting benefits to “more serious conditions”, Mrs Badenoch is expected to reiterate her policy of preventing foreign nationals claiming welfare.
She will say: “It is not fair to spend £1 billion a month on benefits for foreign nationals and on handing out taxpayer-funded cars for conditions like constipation.”
The £1 billion figure refers to benefits paid to households that include at least one foreign national, but may also cover payments to British citizens.
The taxpayer-backed Motability scheme provides vehicles to people who receive the “enhanced” mobility element of personal independence payment, covering those with serious mobility problems, and usually involves exchanging all the allowance and providing an additional upfront payment in exchange for a lease on a vehicle.
She will also call for an end to remote assessments of benefit claimants, arguing that this had allowed people to “game the system”, and pledge to “get people back to work” through retraining and “early intervention”.
Mrs Badenoch’s speech comes a week after Sir Keir Starmer U-turned on proposals to cut the benefits bill by £5 billion in the face of discontent among his backbenchers.
After the U-turn, economists have warned that the Government’s proposals will now deliver zero savings by 2030.
In her speech, Mrs Badenoch will attack the Labour Government as being “beholden to left-wing MPs” and “completely unprepared for government”.
And she will also take aim at Reform UK, accusing both Nigel Farage’s party and Labour of “turning a blind eye” to the impact of the rising welfare bill.
Mr Farage has vowed to scrap the two-child benefit cap if Reform UK comes to power, something the Conservatives have criticised as unaffordable.
Mrs Badenoch will say: “Nigel Farage pretends to be a Thatcherite Conservative but really, he’s just Jeremy Corbyn with a pint and a cigarette.
“On welfare he shows his true colours – promising unaffordable giveaways with no plan to fix the system.”
A Labour Party spokesperson said: “The Conservatives had 14 years to reform welfare. Instead, they left the country with a broken system that holds people back and fails to support the most vulnerable. Kemi Badenoch’s Tory Party should be apologising for the state they left the system in.
“Labour is committed to reforming the broken welfare system through our Plan for Change by investing £3.8 billion in supporting sick and disabled people back to work, introducing our new Youth Guarantee giving all 18 to 21-year-olds the chance to be learning or earning, and creating more good jobs in every part of the country.”