Labour comments on the Tories’ latest welfare speech

A Labour Party spokesperson, commenting on the Tories' latest welfare speech, said:

The Tories' so-called plan' is a charter for homelessness and human misery that would push people into hardship and end up costing the state more. 

The crude cuts they want to make would compound the mistakes they made in government, which led to the welfare bill rocketing by nearly £114 billion and a NEETs crisis.

Labour is tackling the Tories' collapse in face-to-face assessments, bringing in personalised employment support for sick and disabled people, and spreading opportunity to young people through the Youth Guarantee. Further reforms will follow the Milburn and Timms Reviews, which will be about bringing the welfare bill down in a Labour way by shifting funding to invest in success rather than paying for failure.

Ends

Notes:

• Under the Tories, welfare spending rose by £58.3bn a year in real terms (2025/26 prices) between 2010/11 and 2023/24. That's £113.9bn a year in nominal terms over the same period. (Source: Government benefit expenditure and caseload tables 2025, link)

• The Tories scrapping the two-child benefit limit would push 450,000 children back into poverty, and the costs would move elsewhere into the system.

• The policy on Local Housing Allowance would increase homelessness, passing costs on to local authorities. Kemi Badenoch has admitted the Tories have made no assessment of how many children this would make homeless.