Badenoch warns Healey's Budget will 'do more damage' than Reeves's
Kemi Badenoch has demanded welfare cuts to fund a rise in defence spending to 3% of GDP, warning John Healey's Budget in eight days could 'do more damage' than either of Rachel Reeves's.
Kemi Badenoch has delivered a major pre-Budget speech in Central London, warning that Chancellor John Healey’s first Budget — due in eight days’ time on 28 October — could “do more damage to our country” than either of his predecessor’s budgets.
“John Healey is not Rachel Reeves. Many people see that as an improvement. How could it be worse than £70billion in new tax rises across two budgets? However, I’m worried he will deliver a Budget that does more damage to our country than either of her budgets did,” the Conservative leader said.
Badenoch called for cuts to welfare spending to fund raising defence spending to 3% of GDP, arguing that delaying the decision until next autumn would be “unconscionable”. She also mocked Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s crackdown on loud music on trains.
She signposted the Conservatives’ £70bn savings package — welfare spending cuts, cuts to civil-service headcount, and scaling back foreign aid — saying Healey should adopt cuts to “live within our means”. “We have to stop borrowing so much. But instead of doing that Labour are taking out loans to pay the interest on our loans,” she said.
She warned: “Fictional cuts are not going to cut it. Investors simply aren’t buying it.” She claimed gilt yields were rising to 6%, their highest level since 1998.
A Labour spokesperson responded: “The Conservatives have zero credibility on the economy,” according to PA.
Healey has cast the Budget as a “tough” package, according to PA.
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