Kemi Badenoch said the Conservatives could back Sir Keir Starmer’s Welfare Bill amid a looming Labour rebellion over cuts to benefits but has laid out conditions for the support.
The Tory leader said the Bill does not cut down welfare spending enough or go far enough to get people back to work and called for the Prime Minister to promise no new taxes would be announced in the autumn.
Ministers have said the reforms could save up to £5 billion a year.
Sir Keir has said he will “press on” with the legislation despite the prospect of a major revolt when the welfare Bill comes before the Commons in a vote set for July 1.
More than 100 backbenchers – enough to threaten the Prime Minister’s majority – have signed an amendment designed to halt the changes.
The Tory leader said Labour’s MPs are in “open rebellion” and set out conditions for her party’s MPs to back the bill.
“The Government is in a mess, their MPs are in open rebellion. If Keir Starmer wants our support, he needs to meet three conditions that align with our core Conservative principles,” she said.
“The first condition is that the welfare budget is too high, it needs to come down. This Bill does not do that.
“The second condition is that we need to get people back into work. Unemployment is rising, jobs are disappearing, and even the Government’s own impact assessments say that the package in this Bill will not get people back to work.
“The third is that we want to see no new tax rises in the autumn. We can’t have new tax rises to pay for the increases in welfare and other Government spending.
“We are acting in the national interest to make the changes the country needs.
“And if Keir Starmer wants us to help him get this Bill through, then he must commit to these three conditions at the dispatch box.”
A Labour spokesperson said that they are “prepared to take on the challenges holding the UK back”.
“We’re fixing the abysmal mess the Tories left behind, and MPs can either vote to keep a broken failed welfare system that writes people off, or they can vote to start fixing it,” the spokesperson said.
