Former Work & Pensions Secretary Esther McVey has claimed the Labour Government will not cut state benefits despite its £5billion announcement earlier today.
Speaking on GB News, McVey dismissed the Government’s plan to save billions from Britain’s ballooning benefits bill as “smoke and mirrors.”
She accused Sir Keir Starmer’s Government of misleading the public about its intentions to address what she called “Rachel Reeves’s black hole” following the recent Budget.
“It’s never going to happen in a million years. It’s not in Labour’s DNA to cut benefits,” McVey stated.
Keir Starmer has been criticised by Esther McVey for his ‘smoke and mirrors’ policy to cut benefits
GB News / PA
She suggested the Government has different priorities than reducing benefit spending.
“They won’t want to cut benefits. They’d sooner take tax from working people, than do something to the benefits system,” she added.
McVey argued that if the Government were truly focused on getting people into work, they would not have implemented what she described as a “disastrous budget.”
McVey pointed to what she called a “tax grab from businesses” in the recent Budget.
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Work & Pensions Minister Alison McGovern has defended the Government’s decision to slash £5billion from the benefits bill
GB News
“You’ve seen more businesses close now than since Labour was last in power,” she claimed.
McVey also warned that 30 per cent of surviving businesses say they will cut jobs due to increases in employers’ National Insurance contributions.
“So, you are not getting people into work; there will be no jobs to put them in and the money isn’t really going to materialise at all,” McVey said.
McVey predicted the benefits bill would increase rather than decrease under Labour, arguing: “This [benefits] bill will be ballooning, it won’t be coming down,” she said.
The Tatton MP also claimed there are “at least 80 rebels” within the Labour Party who will oppose benefit changes.
McVey told GB News that Labour prefers to ‘take tax from the working people’
GB News
McVey claimed Labour has shown its priorities by not opposing other controversial measures.
“They never opposed 10 million pensioners not having their winter fuel payments. They never protested about the farmers,” she said.
She concluded with a stark prediction about Labour’s approach to welfare spending.
“I’m afraid the Labour Party, as long as they’ve got lungs and breathe through the nose, are never going to do anything about the benefits bill, which does, by the way, need to substantially come down,” McVey added.
