Labour has a “moral duty” to bring down Britain’s ballooning benefits bill, the Chancellor has warned ahead of his Budget.
In his first Labour Party conference speech as Chancellor, John Healey said the Government will help young people move from “generation jeopardy to generation hope”.
Almost 350,000 Londoners rely on unemployment-related out-of-work benefits, while roughly 11.6% of young people aged 16 to 24 in the capital are classified as NEET (Not in Education, Employment, or Training), according to data from the Office for National Statistics.
Britain is forecast to spend £333.7 billion on welfare and social security benefits in 2025/26, according to the Department for Work and Pensions.
But more than half of this (55%) is spent on pensioner benefits, including the state pension.
Mr Healey said: “Conference, it is not progressive to allow a bigger and bigger benefits bill, and a system which offers an income but doesn’t offer a future.
“So once again, as a Labour government, it falls to us to act. And this is more than just an economic must. This is a moral duty.
“I refuse to write off a million young people like the Tories have done.”
He added: “I see a generation born this century, digital natives, whip-smart, questioning, ambitious, brave, I see the best asset we have in our young people, and I believe this generation has the potential to be a great generation.
“And I believe we can help this generation move from generation jeopardy to generation hope.”
Mr Healey announced a local apprenticeships service to help young people into employment, backed by £100 million.
The Chancellor also insisted the Government was committed to being responsible with the nation’s finances ahead of his first Budget, due to be delivered on October 28.
He said: “Through the core of the Budget I deliver a month today will be fiscal discipline, to give families and businesses a bit of breathing space, to drive good growth and jobs in more places and to write a new chapter of hope for Britain’s future.”
He attacked the Tories over their record in office, including short-lived former Prime Minister Liz Truss’s mini-budget.
And in a jibe aimed at Reform UK, he added: “Nigel Farage – he wants you to think he’s a man of the people but when it comes to the economy he’s Liz Truss with a Bitcoin account.”
Mr Healey also warned that Britain does not have the money it did under the previous Labour government.
“I know the 90s is having a bit of a revival,” he told delegates.
“To Andy [Burnham’s] excitement, Oasis is going back on tour, to Angela [Rayner’s] joy Gladiators is back on TV. But I have to level with you conference, the money New Labour had in the 90s is simply not there now.
“Economic growth under Gordon (Brown) was more than double the Tory years that followed, and Britain has it harder now.”
Attacking “14 years of flatlining Tory growth and living standards”, he said his message to the Conservatives was: “Your reckless actions are still causing pain to people today. You left crumbling public services, and you left Britain spending more on debt, more on debt than the Home Office, Defence, and Justice put together.
“And people won’t forget. People won’t forgive.
“The cost of the nation’s debt is not just a number in a Chancellor’s budget. It’s the money that we can’t spend on the NHS, on schools, on housing, on social care, on policing our streets, on controlling our borders, on defending our country.”
