Budget fallout intensifies as critics attack Labour's spending plans, welfare costs and defence commitments
John Healey spoke with Laura Kuenssberg as Chief Treasury Secretary Emma Reynolds also refused to commit, telling LBC the government had reduced the gap between youth and adult minimum wage rates "by a third.A data graphic showing Britain spent £1.1 trillion more on benefits than infrastructure over 19 years, as two government reviews on PIP reform and youth employment are due to report this month.
Reform's Treasury spokesperson Robert Jenrick says Labour's Budget conceals a "massive, massive black hole" that will force another round of tax rises unless Burnham calls an early election to bury the problem first. Kemi Badenoch has put the shortfall at £49bn, claiming households face an extra £1,700-a-year tax hit by 2030/31 to cover unfunded spending promises.
Healey declined on repeated occasions to say when benefits spending would be reduced, walking back his own Budget-day claim that the welfare bill would fall "in a Labour way."
New DWP figures show 752,797 people now receive more than £15,000 a year in sickness and disability payments — a record high, equivalent to the combined populations of Manchester and Preston.
Jenrick says Reform's alternative Budget identified £40bn of first-year savings — from welfare, foreign aid, quangos and net-zero subsidies — and would put at least £1,300 back into the average family's pocket.
