Labour MP Calls For 20 Billion Welfare Budget Cut

Labour should slash the welfare bill by £20 billion in an attempt to balance the nation’s books, according to one of its influential MPs.

Chris Curtis, who is co-chair of the Labour Growth Group, said the current rate of spending on benefits was “unsustainable” and that the government’s previous attempts to cut the bill by £5 billion had not been ambitious enough.

His comments, on the Politics Inside Out podcast, come ahead of next week’s Budget, in which Rachel Reeves is set to increase taxes as she seeks to fill a £20 billion hole in the Treasury’s finances.

At the last Budget a year ago, the Office for Budget Responsibility forecast that total government spending on health and disability benefits would rise from £64.7 billion in 2023-24 to £100.7bn in 2029-30.

It is understood that the government has shelved plans to bring down the welfare bill after a backbench Labour rebellion forced ministers to ditch reforms which would have reduced it by £5bn.

But Curtis, the MP for Milton Keynes North, said his party must go much further or else the entire welfare system could collapse.

He said: “We need to be perfectly honest, particularly in the Labor Party. The trajectory of welfare spending cannot and must not continue in the direction it’s currently heading.

“That is unsustainable and in a few years time will be questioning whether the welfare state can continue to exist.”

Curtis said the government’s previous plans “weren’t trying to be ambitious enough”.

“It felt like it was a quite a short-term plan because of a financial hole, to find a quick way of saving £5bn. My view is we should be looking at, potentially over a slightly longer time period, to be saving £20bn, given how big the welfare bill is.

“And that means lots in order to help people with disabilities getting back into work, ensuring that all of the incentives are in the right place, because the incentives are all over the place at the moment.

“At some point, it also means saying to people that unless they go out there and do the right thing, they’re not going to be able to live off the state.”