Badenoch lays out £36bn Tory welfare cut plan and defends slashing disability benefits – UK politics live

By Andrew Sparrow · The Guardian World

Conservative leader insists ‘double amputees run marathons’ as she launches Welfare That Works policy document Good morning. It is quite easy for politicians to declare that they will cut the welfare bill by X amount – but much harder when they have to explain exactly who will lose out. This is summed up by a good anecdote about a former chancellor (Ken Clarke, according to some versions, but it could have been any of them), who gave this reply when asked for cuts that would save £1bn: So, do you want one million people to lose £1,000 each, or 10 million people to lose £100 each? It is too late to work out what you think once you’re in government. If you want to change this country, you need to know exactly what you want to do and how you’re going to do it … We’re telling people what we are going to do now so that there will be no nasty surprises from us such as cutting your winter fuel payment, the jobs tax or the family farm tax once we get into government. Labour MPs think cutting welfare is always cruel. They believe the kindest thing you can do for someone who is struggling is to tell them it’s okay not to look after themselves. That there’s nothing wrong with a life of dependency. And if you don’t think very hard about it, I can see why you might believe that is kind. Of course, there are people who genuinely cannot work. People with serious illnesses and disabilities. People who need time to recover. We must have a safety net for those people. But the reality is that millions of people can and do contribute to our economy to their families to their communities even when they face serious challenges. Double amputees run marathons. People who are housebound do wonderful creative work from home. People with autism run some of the biggest tech companies in the world. Continue reading...