Badenoch: Labour putting tax on working people, to pay benefits to those who don’t work

Today [Tuesday 18^th November 2025] at a press conference in Central London, the Leader of the Conservative Party Kemi Badenoch MP said that Reeves' income tax threshold freeze is paying for the welfare cuts U-turn and Starmer caving to his backbenchers on the two-child benefit cap. 

In her speech, Kemi Badenoch MP said:

Checked against delivery

“Next week, Rachel Reeves is going to tell you a story.

In this story, she will be painted as the heroic victim.

A Chancellor, battling forces outside of her control.

The wicked Tories and the black hole they are somehow creating in the public finances. long after they left office.

Donald Trump and his tariffs.

Brexit, an event which, conveniently, she has only recently become aware of.

And of course, inflation, which despite her best efforts, keeps rising because of things other people are doing.

This story is nonsense.

The truth is that next week, Rachel Reeves is going to put up people's taxes to spend more money on benefits.

Everything else she says is a smokescreen for this simple fact. A fact she cannot deny.

Let me walk you through it.

Earlier this year, the Labour Government tried to bring down the welfare bill.

A bill, which under them is set to rise to £100 billion a year on sickness benefits alone.

In opposition, they seemed to think this wasn't a problem, they arrived in office with no plan to cut spending.

But last Autumn, seeing that they were in a financial hole, they thought maybe they could find £5 billion of savings.

Of course, nowhere near enough.

But at least it was something.

But when it came down to it, the Prime Minister and the Chancellor were no match for their left-wing backbenchers.

They capitulated and ended up passing a bill that cost money instead.

And Mel will talk about that in more detail.

But in summary, Labour MPs created a new £5 billion hole in the Chancellor's estimates.

Since then, we have had nothing but drift.

Last week, we had the farce of the Prime Minister accidentally firing the starting gun on the race to replace him, shooting himself in both feet in the process.

So now instead of trying to make savings in the budget, we are seeing a rush of announcements to appease Labour backbenchers and try to shore up his position.

Just a few months ago, Rachel Reeves was saying she couldn't afford to scrap the two-child benefit cap.

Now it looks like becoming her latest U-turn.

So far from bringing down the welfare bill, she's going to add another £3.5 billion to it.

That's £8.5 billion she is going to have to find next week in taxes.

More taxes to pay for more welfare spending.

We need to call this out for what it is.

Labour are raising taxes to pay for Keir Starmer's weakness on welfare.

All this government is delivering is higher taxes and out-of-control spending.

And nobody voted for this.

The British public don't want higher welfare spending.

They want people to be in work, providing for themselves.

Keir Starmer has already broken his manifesto promise not to raise tax on working people with last year's Jobs Tax.

That Jobs Tax has been passed on to all of us, through higher prices, lower wages and lost jobs.

Unemployment has gone up every single month since Labour have been in office.

Instead of putting up taxes, they should be making savings.

They should look at our plan, which we will happily share with them.

We have already announced, as many of you know, how we would save £47 billion, including £23 billion from welfare.

But they are going in exactly the opposite direction. Ever more spending. Ever more welfare.

If this Labour government scraps the two-child benefit cap, I want people to know, a future Conservative government will bring it back.

The cap makes sure people on benefits have to make the same decisions about having children as everyone else.

This is fairness.

But this is not the kind of fairness that Labour believe in.

Only the Conservatives believe in the fairness of the two-child benefit cap.

Every single other party in politics – the Liberal Democrats, the Greens and even Reform want to scrap it.

Right now, Nigel Farage and Zia Yusuf are holding a press conference on how they would supposedly save money, but in reality, they want to increase benefits by scrapping the two-child benefit cap. They just don't get it.

None of these parties do.

The Conservative Party are the only Party in this country committed to living within our means.

However, it is Starmer and Reeves who are actually running the country.

And what they are planning to do is freeze income tax thresholds, so that more and more people are dragged into higher rates through a stealth tax bombshell.

Rachel Reeves even said at the Budget last year that “extending the threshold freeze would hurt working people” and “take money out of their payslips”.

But apparently, she doesn't mind doing that if it will fund more benefits and shut her backbenchers up.

Funnily enough the amount she will raise from breaking her promise on thresholds is almost exactly what she needs to splurge on welfare.

The fact is, they are hiking taxes on people in work, to give handouts to people out of work, the last group of people who might still vote for Labour.

And if it wasn't clear already Labour are the party of welfare not working people. It is clear now.

Because these changes they are making, are not fair, they are not right, and we will oppose them every single step of the way.

We have identified £47bn of savings, including £23bn from welfare reforms.

Labour repeatedly dismiss that figure, because they do not want to admit that any savings are possible.

They have given up trying, and that means things will only get worse.

There is an alternative.

We spent a year doing the hard work to find savings.

Our Golden Economic Rule means every pound saved will be split between cutting the deficit and cutting taxes or funding key priorities like abolishing stamp duty.

A measure which will stimulate economic growth, unlock the housing market, and create jobs.

Our Golden Economic Rule is honest, it is disciplined, and it is rooted in simple Conservative principles: spend less, tax less, reward effort, restore stability.

This is our alternative.

It is the Conservative Plan for a Stronger Economy.

Cut spending; cut tax; back business – get Britain working again.”

ENDS