No 'Arbitrary' Welfare Cuts Under Burnham, Streeting Insists Amid Mixed UK Government Messaging

LONDON — British Prime Minister Andy Burnham will avoid making 'arbitrary' cuts to the country's rising social security budget, top Cabinet minister and Defence Secretary Wes Streeting said on Friday, as he defended days of mixed government messaging on welfare.

Streeting accused Labour's opponents — and the Keir Starmer government, in which he served as health secretary — of not properly thinking through plans to reduce the welfare bill, leading to a collapse in political support.

Streeting told the BBC's Today programme: 'I saw it, frankly, after the last general election, when we went too far too fast with an arbitrary figure to cut welfare and when people saw the detail of what that meant for disabled people in our country, the very same people who were saying we need to cut the welfare bill were saying "but not like that".'

He said: 'What I do understand from experience, and I've seen this experience borne out under both Conservative and Labour governments, is that when you put in place arbitrary targets to cut welfare without a thought-through plan to do so sustainably and responsibly, the plans fall apart.'

Spending on UK health and disability-related benefits has increased sharply since the Covid pandemic, with the bill for working-age disability benefits in England and Wales rising from £14 billion in 2020 to £25 billion in 2026.

Former Health Secretary Alan Milburn is leading a report into how to help the estimated one million young people not in employment or education. It is due to be published in November, and the government is also waiting on minister Stephen Timms to make recommendations on disability benefit reform.

A previous bid to reduce welfare under Starmer was scrapped after a revolt among Labour MPs. The row was seen as deeply damaging to Starmer's authority and a sign that the leadership had lost touch with rank-and-file MPs.

Streeting's comments came after an extended back-and-forth between ministers and journalists on Thursday over whether Burnham's government will lower welfare spending before the next general election. Asked by the BBC whether cuts to the welfare bill would be made before the next election, Healey said: 'There will be a reduction in the benefits bill, we'll do that in a Labour way.'

But Treasury officials tried to clarify that Healey had not put a date on reductions, with the Chancellor telling Channel 4 News shortly afterwards: 'It's not correct to say that we are going to bring this welfare bill down in this parliament because we've not set a timetable for that.'

Streeting said of welfare on Friday: 'We all agree we've got to bring it down, we've just got to do it in the right way.'

The Conservatives leapt on the confusion to say Labour were 'confused, unserious, and [had] no plan'. Deputy Conservative Chairman Matt Vickers told GB News on Friday morning that Healey had given 'no answers' on welfare, adding that the government's priorities are completely wrong and that the ballooning welfare bill needs to be sorted out.