Kemi Badenoch will promise to slash Britain’s welfare bill by £36.1billion, accusing Labour of presiding over a system that is “crushing our economy” and encouraging millions of people to become dependent on state support.
The Conservative leader is expected to unveil the proposals at an event today, arguing that welfare spending has reached an unsustainable level and now exceeds the entire gross domestic product of Ukraine.
The bill is estimated to top £ 330 billion in the 2025-26 financial year, making it a central target of the Tories’ attempt to distinguish their economic and social policies from those of the Government.
The proposed savings would come from a series of significant changes, including tighter eligibility for disability and sickness benefits, restoring the two-child benefit cap and restricting access to benefits for foreign nationals without EU settled status.
The largest individual saving, £13.7billion, is expected to come from disability and sickness benefit reforms. These could include removing payments for some mild mental health conditions and back pain.
A further £9.5billion is expected to be saved by ending benefit claims for foreign nationals without EU settled status, while reinstating the two-child benefit cap is projected to reduce spending by £3.1billion.
The cap, which Labour scrapped last year, had restricted the child-related benefits available to families with more than two children.
Badenoch will frame the proposals as a fundamental choice about the role of the state and the responsibilities of individuals.
“The question of whether we should cut welfare goes to the heart of what sort of country we want to be,” she will say.
She is expected to accuse Labour MPs of believing that reducing welfare spending is inherently cruel, arguing that the current system too often encourages a “life of dependency”.
The Conservative leader will stress that people who genuinely cannot work must continue to receive support, but argue that serious health conditions should not automatically prevent people from contributing to society.
“Double amputees run marathons. People who are housebound do wonderful creative work from home. People with autism run some of the biggest tech companies in the world,” she will say.
She will also argue that telling young people with ADHD that they are incapable of succeeding risks doing more damage to their prospects than the condition itself.
“Conservatives believe in a system that looks at people through the lens of what they can do – not what they cannot,” she will say.
The proposals place welfare reform firmly at the centre of Badenoch’s political pitch, with the Conservatives seeking to portray themselves as the party prepared to confront the rising cost of public spending.
However, the scale of the proposed savings will inevitably put the party under pressure to demonstrate how the changes could be implemented without withdrawing essential support from people who are genuinely unable to work.
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