Rishi Sunak vows to slash £12bn a year off welfare bill in bid to get election campaign back on track
RISHI Sunak will look to get his election campaign back on track with a manifesto vow to slash £12billion a year off the bloated welfare bill.
The PM told The Sun on Sunday he is on a “moral mission” to end the scandalous “waste of potential” of Brits languishing on welfare.
But Labour’s Rachel Reeves hit back, saying Brits cannot trust Mr Sunak as he is taking “the same approach as Jeremy Corbyn”.
The shadow chancellor makes an “iron clad” manifesto commitment not to raise income tax, national insurance or VAT.
The Tories and Labour go to war this week as they both launch make or break election manifestos.
Writing exclusively in The Sun on Sunday, the pair do battle over tax and welfare.
Mr Sunak unveils a crackdown on welfare to get Brits back to work, wean the country off immigration and save billions in taxes.
He writes: “I won’t accept more and more of our young people being parked on benefits, this wouldn’t be right or fair.”
The number of Brits off sick has rocketed up 800,000 to 2.8 million since the pandemic.
The benefits bill is set to rise £21billion to hit £90billion within five years unless action is taken.
The PM added: “Tony Blair and Gordon Brown might have been prepared to place large numbers of people on out of work benefits while importing foreign workers. I am not. I want to reduce immigration every year and that means we must get our own people back to work.”
The welfare plan includes looking at how to replace some disability cash benefits — known as PIP — with other support and treatment.
People who can work but refuse for 12 months will be stripped of benefits.
A new crackdown on benefit fraud will also be launched.
Responsibility for signing off sick notes will be moved from GPs to specialists.
The Tories will also unveil a promise to abolish National Insurance Tax on workers eventually — although they will not set a date on when.
They will also vow to ignore the European Court of Human Rights if it tries to stop Rwanda flights.
Meanwhile, Ms Reeves savaged the Tories in her piece.
She writes: “The Conservatives’ claims about our tax plans are lies. Our manifesto will contain an iron-clad commitment to working people that there will be no increase in national insurance, income tax or VAT.
“Everything in our plans is fully funded and fully costed through the tax loopholes we would close. Nothing in our plans requires any new taxes.”
Slamming Mr Sunak, she added: “The approach the Conservatives are taking now is the same as the approach Jeremy Corbyn took — and I totally reject it. I’m not going to offer you a fantasy manifesto that writes cheques we could never cash. I will never do this.”
Labour plans to increase the minimum wage.
- LABOUR is heading for a 416 majority, a Deltapoll survey for the Mail on Sunday said last night. Even Mr Sunak would lose his seat.