The Number 10 spokesman has refused to say on the record that the Prime Minister wants to cut the gigantic welfare bill, despite holding a pointless press conference this morning in which Starmer claimed the UK needs a “productivity revolution“. And then announced virtually nothing to achieve that…
Now his spokesman is being similarly opaque. Asked directly if Starmer wants overall welfare spending to fall, the spokesman said:
“You’ve got his words on those reviews which will come back in due course and the PM has set out our longstanding position… we are reforming the welfare bill… What the PM wants is comprehensive reform of the system which is why you’ve got these two parallel reforms underway, and they will report back…”
Welfare spending is set to his £16 billion by 2030 – a staggering sum which doesn’t cause Labour backbenchers to even blink. Which might explain Starmer’s reluctance to do anything meaningful about it…
