PM ‘incapable of sticking to a decision’ after welfare U-turn – Badenoch

The Prime Minister is “incapable of sticking to a decision” after he made a major U-turn on welfare reforms in the face of a backbench rebellion, Kemi Badenoch will say.

The reforms would only have made “modest reductions to the ballooning welfare bill”, but Sir Keir Starmer was “too weak to hold the line”, the Conservative Party leader is expected to say.

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Criticise 

In a speech to the Local Government Association Annual Conference in Liverpool on Wednesday, Ms Badenoch will criticise Sir Keir for creating a “punishing welfare trap that shuts people out of going back to work”.

“This week, the Prime Minister backed down on limited reforms that would have made modest reductions to the ballooning welfare bill,” she will say.

“He was too weak to hold the line.

“The result? A punishing welfare trap that shuts people out of going back to work.

“Right now, Labour are making everything worse. And Keir Starmer sums up exactly what’s wrong with politics today.

“Now that his backbenchers smell blood, there’s almost certainly another climb down on the two-child benefit cap in the offing.

“Labour told us ‘the adults were back in charge’, but this is actually amateur hour. The Prime Minister is incapable of sticking to a decision."

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Savings

The speech continues: “If he can’t make relatively small savings to a benefits bill that is set to exceed £100 billion by 2030, how can we expect him to meet his promised 5% defence spending, or ever take the tough decisions necessary to bring down the national debt?”

On Saturday, the Prime Minister told the Welsh Labour conference the “broken” welfare system must be fixed “in a Labour way”.

In a speech to the Welsh Labour conference, he said: “We cannot take away the safety net that vulnerable people rely on, and we won’t, but we also can’t let it become a snare for those who can and want to work,” the Prime Minister said.

“Everyone agrees that our welfare system is broken: failing people every day, a generation of young people written off for good and the cost spiralling out of control.

“Fixing it is a moral imperative, but we need to do it in a Labour way.”