Conservatives to oppose welfare reform bill

ODN

Helen Whately has revealed the Conservatives will oppose the bill on welfare changes on Tuesday evening. The shadow work and pensions secretary said the legislation is "rushed" and "doesn't fix the problem of the welfare system".    Report by Kennedyl. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn

Transcript

00:00We're going to be voting against a welfare bill tonight.

00:02This is rushed legislation, it's bad legislation.

00:06It doesn't fix the problem of the welfare system

00:09and it doesn't make enough savings, so we're going to oppose it.

00:12The fact that the sickness benefits bill is going to go up to £100 billion

00:15by the end of this Parliament, what the government brought forward

00:17originally was a £5 billion saving.

00:20They were struggling to get that through.

00:21We said to Keir Starmer, if you will commit to actually making the proper savings

00:25and really bringing the welfare bill down,

00:27if you'll commit to getting more people into work,

00:30which the bill wasn't and isn't going to do,

00:31and if you'll commit to then using those savings to avoid tax rises in the autumn,

00:35then he would have had our support.

00:37But he hasn't done that.

00:38Instead, he's capitulated to his rebels.

00:41He's weakened the bill.

00:41He's halved the amount of savings that they're going to make.

00:44He's creating a two-tier welfare system which will serve as a welfare trap.

00:48The legislation is just too bad for us to be able to vote for it.

Category

Transcript

Recommended