Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch has said that state benefits should primarily go to people with genuine or severe disabilities as she outlined proposals to cut the welfare budget.
She told GB News: “We’re proposing £36 billion of savings. They [Labour] actually want to increase welfare spending. After the Budget, we found out that welfare spending is going to increase by £4 billion extra on top of the hundreds of billions that we thought it was going to in March. It’s just getting worse and worse.
“What we’ve done today is not just put out a number, but we’ve explained exactly where the money is going to come from, exactly who’s going to be impacted. Because we want to be honest with people about what we’re going to do.
“We’re not going to do nasty surprises like Labour did, snatching away the winter fuel payment, the jobs tax, the family farms tax. There is a better way on welfare.
“What we are talking about is looking at the conditions that people are claiming for conditions which they can work with. What we want to tackle is people who can work but who choose not to work. The welfare system should be there for those with genuine disabilities, severe disabilities, people who are really ill. It should be a safety net, not a lifestyle.
“That’s why those benefits will come down because people who shouldn’t be claiming them are. We want to bring back face-to-face assessments, for instance. Now, you can just ring up and say, ‘I’m too anxious to go to the benefit office,’ and you just get the money. We don’t think that’s right.
“It’s not government money. It is taxpayers’ money. It’s your viewers’ money, and we need to make sure that that money is going to the right place. So we’ve set out plans. We are a party of fiscal responsibility. We’re going to make sure government lives within its means and looks after the money which you, the taxpayer, are paying. It’s common sense, and we’re bringing it back.”
Asked about the jailing of a man who had sent her death threats, Badenoch said: “Well, I’m pleased. As a politician, you get these death threats all the time. Certainly, when you have the profile that I have.
“But what was particularly concerning was that this man was targeting my husband as well, and if you come after a politician’s family, I think it is right that you get a prison sentence. He claimed to be ex-IRA, said he was going to put a bullet in my head, said all sorts of unspeakable things to my husband about what he was going to do to me, and we shouldn’t have to put up with that.
“We have seen after the murders of Jo Cox and David Amess, and most recently Ann Widdecombe, that this threat is real, and it is right that people know that if they carry out those threats, then justice will be served.”
