Keir Starmer says he is fighting to stay. The problem is that is all he is doing. Last week’s King’s Speech was written to save his skin, not to fix anything.
Take the spiralling welfare bill, which even his own Chancellor recently admitted desperately needs gripping.
But there was no Welfare Bill in the King’s Speech – and without that there can be no serious reform.
Last week was a chance for Keir Starmer to show us how serious he is, by committing to bringing forward legislation to tackle mounting welfare costs. He decided against this.
It’s not hard to see why. The Government’s Welfare Bill last year was gutted at the eleventh hour to save the Prime Minister an embarrassing defeat by his own backbenchers – MPs who refuse to countenance any welfare savings whatsoever. As a result, the Bill ended up costing money.
But Labour’s capitulation on welfare puts them dangerously out of touch with the country. I recently received an email from a constituent who wrote:
‘I am writing to you with utter frustration. We work so hard and for what? What is the point of working? To watch everyone else do nothing and get paid more than you! I’ve done the benefit calculation online and I’d be better off quitting my job. How is that normal or fair?’
My constituent is far from alone. I’ve heard that same frustration on doorsteps, in pubs, on trains and across social media. Family breadwinners losing their jobs and young people losing hope. Millions have drifted out of work; for many, claiming benefits simply makes more sense.
For those still working, each month their earnings vanish in higher taxes and higher bills, with nothing left over. People who are doing the right thing are paying for people who’ve opted out.
Labour promised the electorate change. The only change most people have seen is that they are poorer
Over 600,000 households are claiming more than £32,000 a year in benefits – more than the take-home pay of the average British worker.
91,000 households are getting over £50,000, enough to put you in the top 10% of our nation’s earners. And 16,000 households get over £60,000; to match that in work, you’d need to earn £70,000.
Over 8 million people are claiming Universal Credit and almost 4 million people are on sickness benefits. This is costing us £140 billion pounds a year. Money that could go on defence, safer streets – or simply be left in people’s pockets.
Alarm Clock Britain is sick of paying out for Benefits Street. Yet Labour is doing nothing about it. For every day of inaction, taxpayers pay the price.
Labour claim to be the party of working people. The facts say otherwise. They always leave office with unemployment higher than when they arrived, and they’re on track to do it again. There are now over 300,000 more people unemployed than when they took power.
Their policies – the rise in Employers’ National Insurance, the Employment Rights Act – have actively killed jobs. And now the King’s Speech brings us the oxymoronic ‘Regulating for Growth Bill’. Employers are being asked to swim against the tide with bricks in their pockets.
The result is 700,000 graduates now on out-of-work benefits. Youth unemployment at 14.3%. Young people who want to earn money, pay their own way, and save for their futures are stuck.
The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions knows this, which is why he’s frantically announced a flurry of schemes costing £2.5bn. But the young people I speak to want real jobs. Not government-funded work experience.
Last week was one last chance for the Prime Minister to hit reset. To get people off benefits. To bring down the welfare bill. But with his premiership hanging on by a thread, it was no surprise that the King’s Speech contained none of this.
Being in power is not an end in itself – what matters is what you do with it. Labour promised the electorate change. The only change most people have seen is that they are poorer. They had no plan when they got into office and they still have no plan now.
Conservatives have been using our time in opposition differently. Working hard and making a plan. That’s why we’ve set out an Alternative King’s Speech – with more in it than the actual one.
On welfare alone, we have a plan to make £23bn in savings.
We will bring back the two-child benefit cap; stop handouts to foreign nationals; end sickness benefits for anxiety and ADHD; restore face-to-face assessments; ban sickfluencers; and reform fit-notes. We will restore the household benefits cap to its original purpose: making sure work always pays better than benefits.
No more gaming the system. No more free cars for tennis elbow or acne.
Other parties are already adopting our policies. Labour is welcome to as well. Except they are too busy working out who should be in charge, and the saddest part is, it won’t make a difference.
Their backbenchers will only block them – the same MPs who cheered for taxes on farmers, family businesses and schools; who cheered for lifting the two-child cap; who think you fix poverty by handing out free breakfasts paid for by people struggling to pay their own bills.
Sometimes things go wrong and people need help. But that is exactly why welfare should be a safety net – not a lifestyle choice.
Labour’s answer is always the same: tax more and spend more of other people’s money. It is the wrong answer.
People have had enough. They can see our welfare system isn’t working. It’s not even working for people who’re seriously ill or disabled.
Conservatives have picked a side. We’re on the side of people who get up each day, go to work and pay their bills. The King’s Speech was a chance to do right by them.
Labour blew it.
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