Kemi Badenoch has offered to help the government pass legislation to slash the welfare bill – but with conditions attached.
In a speech on Tuesday morning, the Conservative Party leader accused the government of having “totally lost control of spending” and “leading Britain into a deeper and deeper crisis”.
She argued that the only way to fix the issue was to dramatically reduce the welfare budget – and set out to Sky News political correspondent Tamara Cohen her conditions for supporting the government.
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Speaking at the Institute of Chartered Accountants, Ms Badenoch said: “We are the only party arguing that government has to live within its means.
“Every single other political party in parliament today, every single other one, wants to increase welfare spending and they voted to do so.
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“They wanted to lift the so-called two child benefit cap. They don’t mind that our sickness benefits bill alone is on course to reach £100bn by 2030.”
The Tory leader said the chancellor will have no option but to raise taxes at the budget in the autumn to fund Labour’s spending plans, and also pay the interest on the vast government debt.
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But she claimed that “some in government must know that things need to change”, saying: “You can picture their grim faces, looking at the latest OBR [Office for Budget Responsibility forecast] figures.
“But the truth is they came into government with no real plans for how to save money – only how to spend it. That’s why they are in trouble.”
To that end, she said she is “making the prime minister a serious offer” because “the Conservative Party will always act in the national interest”.
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She noted that Sir Keir Starmer had tried to cut welfare spending by targeting benefits paid to disabled people, but had to “gut” the legislation just before the vote and was “humiliated by his own backbenches”.
But she continued: “If he is serious about cutting spending, and really bringing down the welfare bill, we will help him.”
And pointing to Angela Rayner’s resignation, and the ensuing contest for a new deputy Labour leader, Ms Badneoch said: “Whether he wants to admit it or not, Keir Starmer needs our help.”
‘We need to find common ground’
Speaking to Sky News after her speech, the Tory leader said she will only support new government legislation on welfare as long as it brings the total spending down.
“Right now, what I’m offering is for us to sit down together and find common ground,” she told Cohen. “We know that this is difficult, but Conservatives have done this before. We had to find welfare savings and reform welfare in the coalition, [majority] government and after, and we can do it again.”
She insisted the Tories reduced the welfare bill before the pandemic, when it started going up again.
She said: “We fixed the previous problem. There is now a new problem and what we’re saying is let’s work together to fix it.”
“If we don’t live within our means, we will go bankrupt and our children will have to pay off the debt,” she added.
‘Stop all these distractions’
Ms Badenoch was also challenged on her claim that she was offered a scholarship place at the Stanford Medical School in California, which The Guardian reports has been denied by the admissions staff who were there at the time.
She told Cohen: “They’ve been told something that I didn’t say. I didn’t say I was offered a place – I said I was offered a scholarship, a part scholarship. I hadn’t applied for it.
“But I stand by every single thing that I said. It’s something American universities do. They send out speculative offers.”
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She called on people to “stop all these distractions about who said what, and who’s up and who is down”, and focus on Angela Rayner’s property taxes, and the economy.
“I tell the truth. I stand by what I said. But right now, the truth is our economy is going in the wrong direction – it’s in free fall, and we have got to fix this.”
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A Labour Party spokesperson rejected Ms Badenoch’s offer of help.
“It’s delusional of Kemi Badenoch to think anyone would want to take economic advice from her Conservative Party,” they said. “Their economy-crashing, growth-killing, irresponsible approach to governing left mortgages spiralling and working people worse off.
“The only thing in Britain that needs a bailout is the Conservative Party from its leadership. The Tories haven’t listened, they haven’t learned, and they can’t be trusted.
“Labour is clear that people who can work should work. This Labour government is getting people back into the workplace and out of the doom loop of joblessness that spiralled out of control under the Conservatives.”
