Britain’s benefits bill threatens to bankrupt the nation and push taxes even higher but new Chancellor John Healey has a track record of opposing welfare cuts, according to the Reform UK MP who wants to replace him.
Robert Jenrick – chosen by Nigel Farage to serve as Chancellor in a future Reform Government – warned Britain is at “breaking point” and pledged action to cut benefits spending and allow taxes to be brought down.
Mr Healey was the shock appointment in Andy Burnham’s cabinet. Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband and Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood were seen as key contenders for the powerful position but Mr Healey – who hastened Sir Keir Starmer’s exit by resigning as Defence Secretary in protest at underfunding – now runs the Treasury.
Reform claimed that Mr Healey had opposed action to reduce benefit spending under successive Labour leaders.
The Office for Budget Responsibility forecasts welfare spending will hit £407billion in 2030-31 – up from £353billion in 2026-27. It identifies “spending on pensioner and health-related benefits” as the main drivers of the increase.
Reform wants to bring back of the two-child benefit cap as part of a package of measures designed to deliver £45billion in savings. It insists that Mr Burnham should call a general election if he wants to raise taxes.
Mr Healey was a skills minister and then a Treasury minister under Tony Blair but in opposition attacked benefits cuts.
In 2010, he linked the “wage squeeze” to “cuts in services, tax credits and benefits”. He blasted “cuts to benefits and tax credits to fund millionaires’ tax cuts” in 2015, and he opposed “crude cuts” to housing benefit the following year.
Mr Jenrick told the Express: “John Healey is another establishment politician that has spent his career supporting more welfare spending. The country is now at breaking point. Unless this problem is fixed, the benefits bill is set to bankrupt Britain and force taxes even higher. Reform UK will restore fairness to our benefits system by reinstating in-person assessments and the two child benefit cap, so we can lower taxes on hard-pressed families. We will fight Burnham’s coming tax assault every step of the day. If he wants to raise taxes even higher, he should call a general election and see what the British people make of it.”
A Treasury spokesperson said: “So far this week the Chancellor has cut tax on electricity bills and cut business rates on pubs; paid for by changing where taxpayer money will be spent, including scrapping digital ID and using funds from the department for energy and net zero. This is the way to build a new economy.”