It doesn’t seem to have dawned on Labour that the spiralling health and disability benefits bill is set to hit £100billion a year by 2030. That’s one and a half times the defence budget – almost ten times the policing budget. But Labour’s changes just rearrange the deckchairs on the Titanic. They won’t steer us away from the iceberg that is an out-of-control benefits system. We need a wholesale rethink of the welfare system – for today’s challenges, and for an era shaped by social media, flexible work and a changing jobs market.
People want welfare spending under control. They want government to get a grip. And they expect that, if people can work – or contribute in some way – they should. The Government has got into this mess because Rachel Reeves is spending too much money and Labour didn’t make a plan for tackling welfare costs when they were in opposition. Worse still, they cancelled Conservative reforms that would have helped get more people into work.
They also scrapped our sick note reforms – reforms that would have tackled the fact that more than 9 in 10 sick notes sign someone off as too unwell to do any work at all, instead of identifying what they can do. GPs themselves will tell you the system is broken. Our plan would have helped keep more people in work – and out of the benefits system.
It’s increasingly clear that Labour has no plan. The fact there was no clear thinking from their time in opposition is now showing in their actions in government.
At the same time, Labour’s policies are making it harder for people to find jobs. They’re increasing taxes, over-regulating businesses, and pushing through laws that burden employers instead of backing them to grow. Just last month, we lost 100,000 jobs. And more pain is coming – with the Jobs Tax biting, business rates rising and their extreme 300-page union charter – the so-called Employment Rights Bill – set to land soon.
It’s no wonder high earners – the people who fund our public services – are leaving. Since Starmer took office, 10,000 of them have fled. That might please the hard left. But it will leave Britain poorer and weaker.
What we need is a proper overhaul: a welfare system that supports those in real need, while encouraging and enabling those who can work to do so. We had plans to save £12billion – and we would go further. That includes a fairer, more consistent assessment system that treats people with dignity but doesn’t write anyone off for life.
Labour’s approach isn’t fair. Not to the 2,000 working-age people being signed off every day. Not to towns and villages suffering the long-term cost of worklessness. Not to taxpayers, who now support a population the size of Panama out of work.
But here’s the deeper truth Labour seems to ignore: you can’t get people into work if there are no jobs. Only the Conservatives understand that businesses – not governments – create employment.
This is one of Britain’s greatest challenges – and Labour seems blind to the flashing red lights. Reform UK aren’t offering real answers either. They’re calling for even more borrowing and welfare expansion – positioning themselves to the Left of Labour.
It’s a scandal. But it makes one thing clear: only the Conservatives, under Kemi Badenoch’s leadership, can offer the serious reforms needed to fix Britain’s broken welfare system. The contrast with other parties couldn’t be clearer.
We are in a once-in-a-generation moment to rethink welfare, restore work, and get Britain moving again. Anything less is failure.