Badenoch criticises Budget and sets out Conservative tax and welfare plans

Kemi Badenoch has set out Conservative plans to cut £36bn from the welfare bill and to fund tax reductions from savings, including welfare savings. In an interview with GB News, the Conservative leader said the Budget would add £49bn in tax and argued that Labour had made spending promises without explaining where the money would come from.

GB News reported that Badenoch cited Andy Burnham's National Care Service, which she said could cost up to £17bn, and a council house funding programme costing another £4bn as examples of unfunded commitments. She also said Labour did not understand that employers and self-employed people are working people.

Badenoch said the Conservatives had identified £70bn of savings, mostly from welfare, and that their tax plans were costed and funded. GB News reported that she pointed to £9.5bn from benefits for foreign nationals and asylum spending, as well as changes to housing benefit and the two-child benefit cap. She dismissed Reform UK's £50bn welfare target as not adding up.

Asked about Liz Truss's economic legacy, Badenoch said the mini-budget was a mistake because it did not include spending cuts. GB News reported that she said Truss had promised about £150bn to pay energy bills alongside £45bn of tax cuts, and that the public spending element had unbalanced the books.

BBC Two's Politics Live later treated the £36bn welfare cut as a question of feasibility and delivery. The programme said Badenoch had been outlining the plans and that Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Helen Whately would join its panel live. The panel included Labour MP Chris Curtis, former Conservative adviser Anita Boateng and Liberal Democrat MP Lisa Smart.