It was a significant weekend. Polls confirmed the likelihood of Tory victory. David Cameron abandoned his support for extra state funding of political parties. The Tory leader also announced a hardline on bank bonuses. The biggest political news of all, however, was the defection of David Freud to the Conservatives. It was welcome for two […]
The Sunday Telegraph has the story of Labour’s welfare guru, David Freud, and his journey towards becoming a Tory peer. Fraser Nelson writes (my emphasis): "This gives several deeply encouraging signals. First, Cameron is willing to identify genuine experts: he is serious about reform. The appointment of May had, I confess, led me to question […]
That’s the verdict of Iain Martin at The Telegraph… "Today Grayling has led his best operation to date, taking the pin out of a grenade and rolling it under the door of DWP Secretary James Purnell. The revelation that ministers are considering charging interest of up to 27% on social fund loans is staggering. These […]
The Daily Mail calls it "a startling reversal of positions for the two main parties" but notes that the Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Chris Grayling, is "uncomfortable" about Labour’s intention – announced yesterday – to force single mothers to seek work once their youngest child reaches twelve months of age. Mr […]
We won’t say much more about the Tory welfare reform package as here on incapacity benefit and here on the Jobseekers’ Allowance we have already said quite a bit but a few headlines from this morning’s Brixton press conference… David Cameron said that welfare reform was not complicated. It was essentially about the idea that […]
Over the last few days Chris Grayling and David Cameron have been unveiling tough-love policies on welfare. We’ve already had announcements to reduce the number of incapacity benefit claimants by introducing compulsory medical testing and also a requirement for single parents to undertake part-time work once their youngest child reaches school age. Yesterday we learnt […]
In an article for today’s News of the World David Cameron promises to end the "something-for-nothing culture" that Labour has failed to tackle during its ten years in power. The Tory leader says that he is particularly concerned that one-in-five of the 2.6m incapacity benefit (IB) claimants are under 35: "I don’t believe that there […]
Both the Telegraph and Times carry reports this morning about Tory plans for "radical welfare reform". On Tuesday David Cameron is expected to announce a Green Paper that will include the policies summarised in the graphic on the right. Many of these ideas come out of Iain Duncan Smith’s social justice report and will now […]
Highlights from Chris Grayling’s speech on welfare reform to Policy Exchange this lunchtime: No-one benefits from being on benefits: "For some there is no option. For some disability makes it impossible to work. For single parents with young, pre-school children, parenthood is a full-time job. For those people, our benefits system is a must. The […]
Just returned from the press conference at which Iain Duncan Smith and his team of policy advisers presented the Breakthrough Britain report. You can access a full copy here. Perhaps inevitably the journalists’ questions focused on the proposal for a tax break for married couples. My guess is that this one recommendation will dominate the […]
Asked on Monday’s World Tonight what modern compassionate conservatism was defined by, Shadow Health Secretary Andrew Lansley suggested that it was about tackling growing inequality of life expectancy and ensuring wealthy Britain met its responsibilities to excluded Britain. Today’s Scotsman frontpages evidence that that growing inequality is horrifyingly real. It finds parts of Scotland where […]