“We will set out proposals in the new year, and then we will legislate to bring the welfare bill down in a fair and sustainable way, and according to our values as a Labour government. I know that other parties, such as the Conservatives and Reform, claim that they can do crude cuts to welfare.
“By the way, the Conservative Government didn’t manage to do crude cuts because they know full well that if you push people into crisis, then you end up pushing costs into a different part of the public sector. So that’s not the right way to do it because, frankly, this isn’t realistic.
“It is a case of legislating to bring the welfare bill down in a fair and sustainable way. I can’t set out a timetable. I can’t set out a timetable for that before we’ve legislated for it. But the Prime Minister and the Chancellor and the whole government is very clear that we do need to bring the welfare bill down, and we’re also not running away from difficult decisions.
“For example, half of that bill is pension costs, as you know. Half of the so-called welfare bill that people talk about is actually the cost of pensions.
“Now we are absolutely taking forward our manifesto commitment to the triple lock in this Parliament, but in the next Parliament, what we have pledged is to amend the triple lock so that state pension will continue to go up in line with inflation or 2.5 per cent.”
She denied that the Government was cutting defence spending by £1billion: “We’ve overseen the biggest boost in defence spending since the Cold War. We will set out in the spending review how we will reach three per cent by 2030 and how we will meet our Nato commitment of 3.5 per cent. Mark Rutte, the Secretary General of Nato, has welcomed our plans for this.
“That is not correct. We are not cutting defence spending. We are boosting defence spending, and we took some very difficult decisions this week at the Budget to move investment away from departments such as the Department for Transport and the Department for Energy to put into the defence investment plan.
“Over the course of the next four years, we will be spending £300billion on defence. And as the Chancellor has set out, we will reach that three per cent. But the way to do that is to take those decisions in the round at the spending review, which will take place next year.”
She added: “No one ever said that it would be in spring, and no one has confirmed that it will be in the autumn. So it has to be next year. It will be next year, and I’m not going to give you a date on air. You’ll forgive me.”
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