Badenoch says Tory plan to cut welfare for defence does not target the poorest

Helen Corbett and David Lynch, Press Association Political Staff

Kemi Badenoch said the Conservatives’ plan to raise £10 billion a year for defence spending, largely through sweeping welfare cuts, was not targeting the poorest members of society.

She said the welfare system “doesn’t make any sense” as she responded to questions over her plan to fill the defence coffers.

The Tory leader set out plans to hike defence spending to 3% of GDP by 2030 in a speech on Thursday, and sought to draw a distinction from Prime Minister Andy Burnham – who has so far only given assurances that the Government will meet its defence commitments.

The Tories believe some £4 billion could be saved by reforming housing benefit, and a further £3.1 billion through reimposing the two-child benefit cap.

They would seek to raise another £1 billion by ending VAT exemptions for Motability cars, and scrap the Chagos deal to save £200 million a year, among other steps.

They say these measures would fund an annual £10 billion increase in the defence budget, and would meet the 3% by 2030 target.

The Liberal Democrats said the Tories were at fault for a defence spending “black hole” and that they were now proposing “piling the cost onto the poorest and most vulnerable children”.

Mrs Badenoch said while answering questions after her announcement: “You say that we are balancing the books focused on a particular class of people. We just think the system as it stands doesn’t make any sense.”

She added: “The system is being abused, and we want to fix the abuse in the system. We want to bring back some common sense.

“There are many people who can work who are not working. That is the category that we are most focused on – not the poorest, but the people who can work who are not working.”

The Prime Minister has said details of when the UK would meet its defence commitments would be left to Chancellor John Healey, and likely will come in next year’s spending review.

Mr Healey said reaching the 3% target by 2030 was necessary to keep Britain safe in his resignation letter as defence secretary to Sir Keir Starmer.

But Mrs Badenoch said Mr Burnham was “kicking defence spending into the long grass”.

She pointed to the threat from hostile states – including the recent drone attack at Leipzig airport that has been attributed to Russia and the shutdown of a small power plant in the UK that was reportedly linked to Iran.

“Conflict is coming, we must act now,” she said.

She added: “Our enemies are not going to sit around and wait for Labour to find the money to fight them.”

She said Mr Burnham should call a general election if he is not willing to prepare for war, adding: “The Prime Minister cannot defend us by capping bus fares.”

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