Kemi Badenoch plans to “throw down the gauntlet” this week and challenge MPs across the Commons to back a raft of measures to get Britain’s spiralling benefits bill under control. This comes amid warnings Britain faces a “ticking tax timebomb” with Rachel Reeves reportedly telling the cabinet taxes have to go up to cover the cost of abandoned welfare reforms.
Mrs Badenoch will present the Conservatives as the only party ready to take bold action to get a grip on the cost of benefits. She will warn it is “immoral”, “unaffordable” and “unjustifiable” to ask taxpayers to “fork out a projected £100 billion a year on health and disability benefits by 2030”.
The Tories plan to present Parliament with proposed changes which would require people seeking Personal Independence Payments (PIPs) to have a face to face meeting with an assessor – bringing an end to remote assessments. The changes would also prevent anyone becoming a “severe conditions” Universal Credit claimant solely on the basis of a “lifelong diagnosis of anxiety, mild depression or ADHD”.
Conservatives says this would “tackle the explosion in people claiming disability benefits due to low level mental health conditions” They would also restrict PIPs to British citizens unless required by international treaties.
Mrs Badenoch will accuse Sir Keir Starmer of caving into his backbench MPs by gutting welfare reform plans at an estimated cost of £5billion.
She will say: “The Conservatives are now the only party committed to serious welfare reform.”
The Tory leader will also warn the PM against removing the two-child benefit cap even though “emboldened” Labour backbenchers “will now be eyeing up more concessions” and “sensing the opportunity to force his hand”.
The country is now braced for tax rises in the autumn Budget, with experts warning the Chancellor may need to find up to £30billion as a result of downgraded growth forecasts and the cost of u-turns.
Shadow Chancellor Sir Mel Stride said: “Labour’s welfare chaos has created a ticking tax timebomb – and it’s clear that hardworking families and businesses will be the ones footing the bill.”
He warned that “punishing savers and businesses for Labour’s own failures would be a catastrophic mistake”.
“If the Chancellor launches another attack on business or moves to rip up pension protections, she will be destroying jobs and punishing people for saving responsibly for their retirement,” he said.
A Labour MP said it is now “totally impossible to reform the welfare state because that’s not going to fly with other Labour MPs”.
Fearing the country is in a slow-motion “Liz Truss moment”, the MP said: “I think it’s an accepted fact now that Keir has probably moved into the last 18 months of his premiership.”
They expected Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner to take over.
Jasper Ostle of the Adam Smith Institute warned: “More tax raids on companies will cut jobs, disincentivise investment and suppress wages at a time when families are already struggling. History has shown that squeezing the productive economy to pay for ever-growing public services is unsustainable.”
Daniel Herring of the Centre for Policy Studies urged Ms Reeves to take action by “bringing down the welfare bill, reducing unproductive NHS spending, and restraining public sector wage growth.”
And Tom Clougherty of the Institute of Economic Affairs warned the UK is “hitting the limit of what we can get from high net worth individuals without driving them overseas”.
A Labour spokesman was unimpressed by Mrs Badenoch’s challenges, saying: “These uncosted and unserious proposals from Kemi Badenoch are nothing but a desperate attempt to stay relevant. The Conservatives had 14 years to reform welfare.
“Instead, they left the country with a broken system that is neither fair to taxpayers nor to those who need support. This Labour Government is already delivering more face-to-face assessments which massively declined under the Tories.
“Our reforms to Universal Credit reduce the disincentives to look for work introduced by the Conservatives by reducing the health top up for new claims and delivering a real-terms boost to the standard allowance.”