Former Tory chancellor George Osborne has lashed out at Brexiteers in his own party for blocking his attempts to cut the welfare bill, just days before John Healey is to unveil his first Budget.
Talking with Ed Balls, Labour’s former shadow chancellor, on their Political Currency podcast, Mr Osborne offered Kemi Badenoch his backing for her aim of cutting welfare if she wins power back for the Conservatives.
But he warned that her main opposition would not come from the left and Labour but from rightwing Tories in her own party as he recounted his own experience as chancellor between 2010 and 2016.
The former chancellor then went on to list a number of leading Tory Brexiteers including Boris Johnson, Sir Iain Duncan Smith, Lord Nigel Lawson and Rishi Sunak for getting in his way for trying to cut benefits and then massively increasing welfare spending.
While he did not specifically mention Brexit, all those listed were on the opposite side to him in the EU referendum 2016 when he led the Remain campaign.
In conversation with his former Labour rival Mr Balls, he said: “The problem I had were not with the left, not with my political opponents where I was happy to have the fight which is an echo of the current fight around the welfare party and Kemi Badenoch’s messaging on that. It was the right.
“Who opposed the benefits cap, which was the cap on the total number of benefits one family could receive? Mayor of London Boris Johnson was the biggest opponent.
Who was the biggest opponent when I tried to curb the sickness benefits bill which is now the big talking point? Who resigned from the cabinet over it? Iain Duncan Smith, former Tory leader.
“Who was the person who tried to stop me from cutting the generosity of tax credits? Nigel Lawson, the great Margaret Thatcher chancellor.”
He went on: “It was the Tories who were against cutting welfare.”
He said that his experience should serve as a warning to Ms Badenoch who has made her pitch on increasing defence spending, cutting debt and lowering taxes predicated on slashing the welfare bill by £36bn a year.
Her measures include restoring the two-child benefit limit to save £3.1bn, cutting housing benefit by about 4.5bn, ending benefits for non-UK nationals to save £9.5bn, overhauling sickness and disability benefits to save up to £13bn, introducing a “subsistence allowance” for some long-term unemployed Universal Credit claimants who have not paid sufficient national insurance contributions to save £0.5bn and ending VAT relief on Motability vehicles to save another £1bn.
But Mr Osborne warned: “I think one of the challenges for Kemi Badenoch, and I very much think she is on the right vein here when she is talking about welfare bills, is the welfare bill exploded under the Tory governments of Boris Johnson and then Rishi Sunak.
“They will say it is partly to do with covid, for sure that had a big impact but let’s be clear the big rise of young people getting on to benefits happened under Conservative governments. By the way, the right wing press was not supportive of my welfare cuts at times.
“That’s the challenge. You have got to try to assemble the coalition on your own side before you can win the argument with the other side.
“That’s why welfare benefit reform is so difficult. Were there to be a Conservative government and while I think the list of things Kemi Badenoch wishes to do is fairly sensible, the first opposition she would run into would be the Conservative Party and the conservative press.”
But the Tories have said anyone who stands for the party at the next election have signed up to support Ms Badenoch’s plans.
A Conservative spokesman said: “Under Kemi Badenoch, we have built a new Conservative Party, with new policies and new people.
“All our candidates have signed a non-negotiable pledge to back our plans to cut £36 billion from the welfare bill by reforming sickness and disability benefits, ending access to benefits for non-EU nationals, reintroducing the two-child benefit cap, and much more.
“Whilst Andy Burnham says national security cannot come at the expense of social security, the Conservatives are the only party with a serious plan to cut welfare and get people working again.”
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