Oral Answers to Questions

Alex Burghart Excerpts

Wednesday 4th November 2026 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

I call the deputy Leader of the Opposition.

[Alex Burghart (Brentwood and Ongar) (Con)]

I associate myself with the comments the First Secretary of State made about Remembrance Sunday, which I look forward to marking in my constituency of Brentwood and Ongar.

This year, how much will the Government spend on working-age welfare?

[Louise Haigh]

Let me start by congratulating the hon. Gentleman on his elevation to deputy leader of the Conservative party. He recently said that it was now his job to tell the Leader of the Opposition when she is getting things wrong, which must make him the busiest man in Westminster. I am sure that the whole House is right behind him as he takes on such an important job. This Government are committed to bringing the benefits bill down and dealing with the mess left behind by the previous Tory Government, on whose watch welfare rose by £88 billion in a decade.

[Alex Burghart]

I think it is very telling that the right hon. Lady does not want to tell us the answer to that question. The answer is £183 billion. That is the highest figure ever. It is higher than anything during covid; it is higher than spending on defence, schools and policing combined. It is nearly £10,000 for every working household in this country. Will the Government commit to bringing that bill down in this Parliament?

[Louise Haigh]

The Government have been clear: the benefit bill will come down, and we are already taking steps to ensure that. We have rebalanced universal credit, increased face-to-face assessments, introduced a right to try work for disabled people, and introduced the youth guarantee for unemployed youth. Under previous Tory Governments—on the hon. Gentleman’s watch—the welfare bill soared by £88 billion. Nearly 3 million people were written off, with 1 million young people not in employment, education or training. That is the legacy of the previous Tory Administration. This Government are committed to tackling all of it.

[Alex Burghart]

The right hon. Lady has missed the fact that the bill is higher now than it has ever been. The Government are in a complete mess on this. On Thursday morning, the Chancellor went on the BBC and was asked whether there will be cuts in welfare before the next election. He said that there will be. Cue panic in Downing Street. The Prime Minister was sent out to clarify things. He said that the welfare bill needs to come down, but that this cannot be done by cutting the welfare bill. Then, at teatime, the Chancellor conceded defeat and said,

“It’s not correct to say that we are going to bring this welfare bill down”.

Will the First Secretary of State be clear: why is Labour not going to bring the welfare bill down during this Parliament?

[Louise Haigh]

The hon. Gentleman can continue reading out his questions, but he should listen to the answers. I have repeatedly said that the benefit bill will come down, and have set out the steps that this Labour Government are already taking to bring it down. The Milburn report will report shortly, as will the Timms review. Let me set out what further choices this Labour Government are making. Last night, the Opposition walked through the Lobby to vote against every change that this Budget will deliver. [Interruption.] They cheer, but they voted against a council tax cut for 20 million households. They voted against taking VAT off electricity bills. They voted against taking 70,000 small businesses out of business rates, and they voted against a tax on banks to fund it all. Perhaps he would like to explain why he did so now.

[Alex Burghart]

The right hon. Lady seems to have missed out the bit where the Resolution Foundation said that this Budget would be “catastrophic” for living standards, and the bit where the Office for Budget Responsibility said that the Budget would risk 215,000 jobs through tax rises. We know that Labour cannot bring down welfare in the next three years. It has been briefed, however, that the Prime Minister is preparing a 10-year plan. I am old enough to remember Keir Starmer’s 10-year plan, because it was six months ago. This is the only political party in history to have two 10-year plans in 10 months. Given that the Labour party is experimenting with planning, can it commit to reducing this record welfare bill—the highest welfare bill ever—in its 10-year plan?

[Louise Haigh]

The hon. Gentleman can ask me the same question four or five times; I will keep answering the same way. We are taking steps already to bring the welfare bill down, and we will take further steps. We have committed to legislating. Every week, the Conservatives bring here the same problems, and the same messes that we inherited from them—on welfare, defence, immigration and the economy. This Labour Government are committed to tackling it all. No matter what he brings, we are taking steps to deliver on all of it.

[Alex Burghart]

I am sure that the right hon. Lady was paying attention at the Budget, and to the figures that were published. Welfare spending will go up in every single year of this Parliament. I remember the Milburn review—a review so important that it was delayed until after the Budget. The Government are not going to fix welfare, and we know why, because the welfare Secretary told us. He said that every meeting he had with Labour MPs was about asking, “Who can we tax to pay for benefits?” It is very likely that the right hon. Lady was one of those MPs. We all remember that she led the rebellion against Keir Starmer’s very modest welfare policies. If the Government cannot reduce the welfare bill because of their Back Benchers and Front Benchers, can they at least promise that they will not put up taxes to cover these ever-increasing costs?

[Louise Haigh]

We have repeatedly been clear that we cannot afford to pay for failure and must invest in success. That is how we will bring the welfare bill down. We will make support more conditional on taking up opportunities, and ensure that young people get the help that they need earlier. We are tackling the long-term drivers of welfare spending, including high housing costs, and we will do all this in a Labour way.

The hon. Gentleman told a gathering of Conservative party members that they should keep apologising for the many things that they got wrong in government, but I am not sure that his colleagues got the memo. The Leader of the Opposition claimed that she was not in the Cabinet when they made mistakes on migration, but she was there at the peak of the Boriswave. The shadow Home Secretary claimed that he was not responsible for immigration policy when he was a Home Office Minister, and the shadow Chancellor still does not want blame for the mini-Budget, which was written when he was in the Treasury. Perhaps the hon. Gentleman would like to take this opportunity to apologise on behalf of himself and his colleagues.

[Alex Burghart]

We all know what the Labour way is: more tax, more welfare and more borrowing. There is no commitment to reducing welfare, and no promise not to put up tax. The Government know what needs to be done, but they do not have the bottle to do it. They are too scared to cut spending and too weak to do the right thing. They are too busy putting off until tomorrow what needs to be done today, and everyone else is paying the price—the millions of people on welfare, and the millions of people picking up the bill. If Labour does not want to do the right thing, why does it not just get out of the way?

[Louise Haigh]

Mr Speaker, I know—[Interruption.]