Badenoch lays out £36bn Tory welfare cut plan and defends slashing disability benefits – UK politics live
It is quite easy for politicians to declare that they will cut the welfare bill by X amount – but much harder when they have to explain exactly who will lose out.
Key points
- If you want to change this country, you need to know exactly what you want to do and how you’re going to do it … We’re telling people what we are going to do now so that there will be no nasty surprises from us such as cutting your winter fuel payment, the jobs tax or the family farm tax once we get into government.
- But the reality is that millions of people can and do contribute to our economy to their families to their communities even when they face serious challenges.
- They believe the kindest thing you can do for someone who is struggling is to tell them it’s okay not to look after themselves.
This is summed up by a good anecdote about a former chancellor (Ken Clarke, according to some versions, but it could have been any of them), who gave this reply when asked for cuts that would save £1bn: So, do you want one million people to lose £1,000 each, or 10 million people to lose £100 each?
Additional details
- It is too late to work out what you think once you’re in government.
- Labour MPs think cutting welfare is always cruel.
- And if you don’t think very hard about it, I can see why you might believe that is kind.
- People with autism run some of the biggest tech companies in the world.
- People who are housebound do wonderful creative work from home.
How this summary was made: extractive summary — built from the sources' own reporting. It is drawn only from the reporting of the sources listed below — read the originals for full detail. How we summarize →
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