Shadow Chancellor Andrew Griffith has claimed that public spending would be reduced by £71 billion in total under a Conservative government.
Tackled on a claim of reducing welfare spending by £36 billion really amounting to £6 billion, he told the Camilla Tominey Show on GB News: “Well, that’s absolutely right. We are cutting welfare by a very significant amount. I think it’s a clever reduction in the welfare budget because it’s out of control.
“Now, I will continue to do the work, to look at where the public finance is, where we can make more choices, where we can save more money for taxpayers, but it will be the most significant reduction in welfare. And unlike other parties, we are being responsible with the public finances.
“A lot of that will go to paying down the debt, reducing the deficit. That will lower the interest bill that’s currently running at twice the defence budget. We are borrowing money as a country at the highest rates for 30 years, simply to pay the interest on our debt. That’s got to change, and I will be a chancellor that tackles all of those things.”
Asked what the total figure is for proposed savings in government spending, Griffith said: “£71 billion. On top of that, there’s some other areas where we will repurpose money. We’ll take money away from net zero budgets and put it in defence, for example.
“But £71 billion, which is about 4.5% of the total government spending – now, I think we should be more than equal to that task. I think any enterprise, any organisation, any business has to have the ability at all times to be able to make choices in that order.”
He denied that young people were being overlooked: “Well, we’re going to get them on the ladder. I talked about how we’re going to reduce some of the red tape, the gold plating. We can reduce the price of new build properties by £50,000.
“That will help young people get onto the housing ladder earlier. We’re going to speed up the process of houses in this country being built, not where they go, but getting them built once consent has been given.
“And look, you know, you’re living in the past, to be honest. This inheritance tax thing – it used to be one in 20. It’s now one in six families because of Labour’s expansion to farmers, to family businesses, because the thresholds haven’t changed. It’s one in six families that can be touched by inheritance tax, and it’s an immoral tax.”
