Badenoch: Welfare ‘fudge’ driven by ‘panic not principle’
Kemi Badenoch has branded Labour’s welfare reforms a “fudge” that will fail to curb the government’s spiralling welfare bill on health and disability benefits.
MPs are set to vote on work and pensions secretary Liz Kendall’s welfare bill aimed at getting more inactive Brits back into the national workforce by changing eligibility for personal independence payments (pips) and Universal Credit.
But Badenoch has echoed leading economists including former Bank of England chief economist Andy Haldane in describing the welfare bill as “rushed”.
The Conservative Party leader referred to the announcement of the policy ahead of the Spring Statement, with Labour ministers agreeing £4.8bn in cuts shortly before Chancellor Rachel Reeves delivered her Spring Statement and baked in £9.9bn in headroom.
“A fundamental and serious programme to reform our welfare system is required, and this bill is not it,” Badenoch said.
“This bill is a fudge, and I feel sorry for [Kendall]. She looks as if she’s being tortured.”
Badenoch laid the blame on the shoulders of Reeves as she drew on Labour Party MPs’ concerns about the Chancellor’s intervention on the reforms ahead of the Spring Statement.
“This is a rushed attempt to plug the Chancellor’s fiscal hole.
“It is driven not by principle but by panic. The changes were forced through not because they get more people into work, but because someone in 11 Downing Street made a mistake.”
The Tory leader blasted Labour ministers, saying “Under this government every single working day 3,000 people move on to incapacity benefits…a 50 per cent increase from when we left office.” She added the situation was “not normal, not acceptable.”
After some wrangling with backbench MPs, the government have committed to easing its proposed eligibility requirements for pips while agreeing that current recipients will not be affected.
Labour gave ‘late notice of changes’
Internal modelling revised the number of people who could be pushed into relative poverty down after changes were revealed at the end of last week, potentially assuaging concerns of backbenchers, though estimates did not take the number of people who could find work into account.
The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), the fiscal watchdog, complained in March that it was not able to score the economic effects of the government’s policy in part due to “insufficient information from the government” and being sent initial details “very late in the process”.
“Late notice of changes and incomplete analysis hampered our ability to reflect these measures in our forecast,” OBR economists wrote in the foreword to its last fiscal outlook report.
“On this basis, we plan to work with the Treasury and DWP to further scrutinise both the direct and indirect effects of these welfare and employment support policies ahead of our next forecast.”
The Resolution Foundation said the proposed changes could now cost Rachel Reeves some £3bn though Badenoch pointed to ballooning government expenditure on health and disability benefits for working age people.
The OBR said in March that spending on the group of Brits could exceed £70bn by 2030, up from £48.5bn in 2024.
Kendall said the Labour government was acting to take control of the welfare state.
“Because the people we are in politics to serve deserve so much better than this, we are taking action to put the social security system on a sustainable footing so it is there for generations to come,” Kendall said.
“We’re helping millions of low-income households across the country by increasing the standard rate of universal credit, and because we know there is no route to social justice based on increased benefits spending alone, we are providing record investment in employment support for sick and disabled people so they have the rights and chances to work as anybody else.”
Badenoch’s remarks come as the Conservative leader seeks to reset relations with business by stressing her credentials on prudent fiscal management.
“Rebuilding trust is the key job right now – we need people to trust the Conservatives, to believe in us, to see as the ones who are their champions.”