Kemi Badenoch: Let's Get Britain Working Again

Today [Tuesday 4^th November 2025] the Leader of the Conservative Party Kemi Badenoch MP will give a speech on getting Britain working again.  

In her speech, Badenoch will slam the Labour Government for having “given up” trying to reduce the welfare bill after the shocking early reports out of the Timms Review didn't identify any savings – despite Starmer saying the welfare bill is “unsustainable”. This means that, due to the weakness of Reeves and Starmer and their capitulation to their own backbenchers, PIP costs are set to continue to rise at significant speed under Labour.  

Badenoch will also call out Reform for their complicity in this welfare addiction – stating that no party that commits to lifting the Two Child Benefit Cap can be serious about reducing public expenditure when they want the taxpayer to foot the bill for a massive increase in welfare spending. 

Badenoch will call on the Government to get Britain working again, including through removing key barriers to employment. To that end, she will call on Labour to withdraw the so-called ‘Employment Rights Bill', now known as the ‘Unemployment Bill', in its entirety, and instead present legislation that protects workers without holding back growth, slashing employment opportunities, or punishing good employers. 

In her speech, Kemi Badenoch is expected to say: 

“Britain has stopped working, because it has stopped making sense to work. 

Far from solving this, Labour seem intent on making it worse. 

Conservatives are going to get Britain working again. 

Because above all else, this is deeply unfair. 

... 

Earlier this year, Labour backbenchers celebrated when they managed to pass legislation guaranteeing that the sickness benefits bill would rise to £100 billion a year. 

Labour has given up. They have given up making savings on welfare altogether in the Timms Review. 

Just as their own internal assessments are now warning that the cost of PIP payments will continue to spiral out of control. 

The deficit is set to double thanks to decisions this weak Labour Government are taking.  

... 

Meanwhile, Reform's position is more of the same.  

They are yet another subscriber to the welfare addiction our country faces through their pledge to lift the Two Child Benefit Cap.  

Reform want to build more council houses. More people dependent on government subsidy, more quangos, more bureaucracy, more spending. 

By contrast, the Conservatives will abolish stamp duty. We value aspiration. We want smaller government, less state hand-outs, more home ownership. 

... 

Look at Labour's so-called Employment Rights Bill. 

They think making it impossible to ever fire anyone is good news for workers… 

That it will protect them from evil businesses. 

But what they don't realise, is that it just means people won't get hired in the first place. 

... 

The Government has plugged its ears to the warnings of businesses across the country. 

We tried to work with Labour in the national interest. We offered constructive amendments. 

It is clear that this current Bill is not fit for purpose. It needs a fundamental rethink and overhaul. The only responsible action left for the Government is to shelve it in its entirety and start from scratch. 

So ahead of the budget later this month, Rachel Reeves should demand the Government withdraws the Employment Rights Bill altogether – before it becomes Labour's Unemployment Act.”

ENDS 

Notes to Editors: 

ONS figures show unemployment is rising and private wage growth is slowing: 

·                Under Labour, unemployment has increased to a five year high of 4.8 per cent after rising for the eleventh month in a row. The unemployment rate in June to August 2025 was 4.8 per cent, up on the quarter and up from the 4.1 per cent left by the last Conservative Government. The unemployment rate has risen or remained static every month since June to August 2024, and has now reached its highest level in four years, since May 2021 (ONS, Unemployment rate, 14 October 2025, link). 

·                Under Labour, the number of payroll employees has fallen by 128,000. Between September 2024 and September 2025, the number of payrolled employees fell by 100,000. Since Labour entered office in July 2024, there are 128,000 fewer payrolled employees (ONS, Earnings and employment from Pay As You Earn Real Time Information, seasonally adjusted, 14 October 2025, link). 

o       Under Labour, hospitality has been worst affected by job losses. The largest decrease in payrolled employees was in the accommodation and food service activities sector, with a fall of 59,000 employees (ONS, Earnings and employment from Pay As You Earn Real Time Information, seasonally adjusted, 14 October 2025, link). 

·                Under Labour, private sector wage growth has slowed to its lowest rate in nearly four years. Private sector wage growth slowed to 4.4 per cent, while public sector pay increased, reflecting pay rises given by Labour (ONS, Twitter, 14 October 2025, link). 

·                Under Labour, entry-level jobs are at their lowest level in five years, as Labour's tax hikes hits younger and lower paid workers. The proportion of new entry-level jobs has declined to just over a fifth of the overall market, the lowest share since 2020, as employers cut back on lower-paid roles for younger staff to manage rising employment costs including the NICs Jobs Tax and national wage increase (The Times, 26 August 2025, link). 

Labour's choices are weakening the Labour market: 

·                Labour have increased the cost of hiring a worker by nearly £1,000 a year. The Employment Rights Bill will cost £154 per worker and the National Insurance Jobs Tax will cost at least £800 per worker, totalling £954 per worker per year. (ONS, A01: Summary of labour market statistics, 12 August 2025, link; DBT, Employment Rights Bill: Economic analysis, October 2024, link; OBR, Economic and Fiscal Outlook, 30 October 2024, link; Conservative Research Department Analysis, 12 September 2025, available on request). 

·                No10 Economic Adviser Minouche Shafik admitted that Labour's Employment Rights Bill will lead to fewer jobs.  SHAFIK: ‘I also think that we need to look at some other things like the way the labour market works. There's an employment bill that's currently working its way through parliament, which reduces flexibility for employers and does some very good things like gives workers who are on flexible contracts or part-time more rights and more stability, which is a good thing. But on the other hand, if you've got a lot of people on benefits who you are hoping to get into the labour market, as the government is hoping, you need to give employers some flexibility to take risks on those people. And so giving them more flexibility now would probably be a good thing' (LBC, 24 April 2025, archived). 

·                The Federation of Small Business (FSB) has warned the number of small businesses planning to let go of staff has doubled to a third because of the increase in employment costs. Analysis by the FSB shows that a third of business will let go of staff in Q4 2024, up 17 per cent from Q3, that 51 per cent of small employers say that employment costs are the greatest barrier to growth and that 67 per cent of small employers will stop hiring because of the Employment Rights Bill (FSB, Press Release, 20 February 2025, link). 

·                Rain Newton-Smith, CEO of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) said the Unemployment Bill will have ‘damaging consequences for growth, jobs and investment'. Rain Newton-Smith, CEO of the CBI said: ‘It is the unintended consequences of how these policies will be pursued, not the ideas themselves, which will have damaging consequences for growth, jobs and investment. There is a real risk that this legislation imposes a thicket of regulation across all businesses which prevents them from creating the high-quality, secure jobs which we all want to achieve' (Confederation of British Industry, Press Release, 4 March 2025, link). 

Keir Starmer does not have the backbone to reduce the welfare bill: 

·                Because Keir Starmer does not have a backbone, Labour has a £9.3 billion welfare black hole. Scrapping the PIP reforms will cost £4.5 billion by 2029-30 and follows the unfunded welfare spending commitment to reverse the winter fuel payment cut, at a cost of £1.25 billion. Scrapping the two-child benefit would cost £3.5 billion by the end of the decade. The Prime Ministers U-turns collectively create a £9.3 billion black hole (HMT, Spring Statement 2025, 26 March 2025, link; HMT, Press Release, 9 June 2025, link; The Resolution Foundation, 12 May 2025, link). 

·                Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves failed to convince Labour MP's of the need to reduce welfare spending, resulting in a humiliating U-turn for Labour. According to the Daily Telegraph, Rachel Reeves was ‘dispatched as part of a ministerial team to convince MPs to vote for the softer plans'. However, the Government only won the vote after gutting most of the Bill's measures at the eleventh hour (The Telegraph, 2 July 2025, link; BBC News, 1 July 2025, link). 

o   Labour have ducked difficult decisions on welfare, meaning sickness and disability benefits will continue to strain public finances, costing £100 billion by 2029-30. The March 2025 Economic and Fiscal Outlook revised total spending down by £3 billion in 2029-30 – from £100.7 billion in the October 2024 to £97.7 billion – following the announcement of Labour's welfare plans. However, Labour subsequently dropped these plans, meaning sickness and disability benefits are again set to cost £100.7 billion in four years (OBR, Economic and Fiscal Outlook March 2025, 26 March 2025, link).  

Nigel Farage is not serious about tackling welfare: 

·                POINTS POST FARAGE SPEECH TO BE INSERTED 

·                Reform UK's half-baked welfare plans lack ambition, saving £14 billion less than the Conservatives' plan to reform welfare. At Conservative Party Conference, the Conservatives pledged to cut welfare by £23 billion, more than double the amount Reform UK plan to save (£9 billion). Despite copying the Conservative's policies on Motability and lower level mental health conditions, Reform UK failed to match our plan to reform housing benefit, review the rates and exemptions from the Household Benefit Cap, reform job-seeking obligations and to retain the two-child benefit cap (Reform UK Press Conference, October 2025, archived).  

·                Moreover, Reform UK would abolish the two-child benefit cap, costing £3.5 billion a year. Reform UK claim removing the cap is ‘the right thing to do', a policy the Resolution Foundation estimates would cost £3.5 billion a year by 2029–30 (Reform UK Press Conference, 27 May 2025, archived; The Resolution Foundation, Press Release, 12 May 2025, link).  

Only the Conservatives have a plan to reduce welfare: 

·                We will reduce welfare spending by £23 billion. We will deliver £23 billion in savings by reforming non-pensioner welfare including restricting welfare to UK citizens, reforming sickness and disability benefits by ending access for lower-level mental health conditions and making greater use of face-to-face assessment, reforming housing benefit, reviewing the rates and exemptions from the Household Benefit Cap, limiting the VAT subsidy for Motability, reforming job-seeking obligations and retaining the two-child benefit cap.  

This would allow the next Conservative Government to: 

·                Abolish Stamp Duty entirely on primary residences. Stamp duty land tax (SDLT), which is paid when you buy a property or land in England and Northern Ireland, will be abolished for primary residences (GOV.UK, Stamp Duty Land Tax, accessed 9 October 2025, link). 

·                Introduce permanent 100 per cent business rates relief for the Retail, Leisure and Hospitality (RHL) Sector. 250,000 businesses will benefit from the relief, delivering substantial savings that can then be reinvested in better premises, more staff and lower prices (HMT, Press Release, 13 November 2024, link). 

·                Introduce a £5,000 First Jobs Bonus. The £5,000 of National Insurance paid by any British citizen starting their first job will be placed into a personal savings account – earmarked for a first home deposit or future savings. 

Our record: 

·                When we left office, there were over 33 million people in work, four million more than in 2010, as we grew the economy and create more jobs. In April to June 2024, there were over 33 million people in work in the UK, up by over 4 million since 2010, and the employment rate was estimated at 74.5 per cent, 4.2 percentage points higher than in 2010 (ONS, Labour Market Overview, 13 August 2024, link). 

·                When we left office, unemployment had reduced by over 1 million people since 2010, as we delivered our plan to get people into work and grow the economy. In April to June 2024, the unemployment rate was 4.2 per cent, down by 3.8 points since 2010 (ONS, Labour Market Overview, 13 August 2024, link). 

·                When we left office, there were 2.6 million more disabled people in work as we overdelivered on our plan to support people with additional needs into work. When we left office in 2024, there were 5.5 million disabled people in employment, 2.6 million more than in 2013. We overdelivered on our commitment to get one million more disabled people into work between 2017 and 2027, meeting the target five years early (DWP, Official Statistics, 20 November 2024, link). 

·                When we left office, youth unemployment had fallen by nearly 380,000 since 2010, giving more young people the security of a fulfilling job. In April to June 2024, there were 559,000 young people out of work, down by 379,000 since 2010 when Labour left the economy in tatters (ONS, Labour Market Overview, 18 July 2024, link).