John Healey provokes anger as he dodges massive £350billion welfare target again

John Healey is facing fresh Budget fury after suggesting the spiralling benefits bill won’t start to come down before the next general election. The Chancellor said the runaway £350billion cost “will come down under Labour” but refused to say whether it will do so in this parliament.

Speculation is rife that Andy Burnham could trigger an early national vote - despite ruling it out for the next 12 months - before the August 15, 2029 cut-off date. Speaking on Sunday, Mr Healey hit out saying claims he wanted the welfare bill to start falling before the next election were “simply wrong” and he “never set out the timetable for savings”. Confusion arose from the Chancellor’s comments over whether the ballooning cost of welfare would be cut before the next election, with the Government later declining to put a timeframe on it.

He faced questions on the issue following his maiden Budget and the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) warning that sickness and disability benefits could cost £100 billion-a-year before the end of the decade.

Pressed on whether he was promising to bring down the overall benefits bill, or slow down the rate of increase, the Chancellor told the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme: “The overall bill will come down under Labour.

“We’ll start the changes next year, and we’ll bring that bill down.”

He also said: “Since the election, we’ve already slowed down the rate of increase in the benefits bill, which was – the numbers were booming under the Tories.

“This is a system which is not working. We have to make big changes. We will.”

He said a Government White Paper and legislation next year would follow two reviews due to be published this month, one by social security minister Sir Stephen Timms into the personal independence payment (Pip) benefit and another by former health secretary Alan Milburn on young people and work.

He added: “We’ve set out the timetable for changes. We’ve never set out the timetable for savings, and some of the reporting earlier in the week was simply wrong.”

The Chancellor also suggested there will be more tough choices on slashing public spending after the Institute for Fiscal Studies questioned the likelihood of the Government following through on its plans for departmental reductions in the years to come.

He was challenged over plans to bring down the UK’s debt pile of more than 97% of the whole economy and whether that could entail cuts of around 6% to some government departments over several years.

“In this Budget, we’ve already demonstrated we are prepared to take hard decisions about the priorities in Government,” he said.

“We will carry that through into the 10-year plan and the spending review next year.”

Mr Healey also refused to say whether Labour will meet its manifesto pledge to ensure younger workers on the minimum wage are paid the same as others by the next election.

The Chancellor said the Government would “take it one step at a time” and signalled the promise to end “discriminatory age bands” might be delayed.

Tory leader Kemi Badenoch accused Labour of leaving a £49 billion “black hole” in the nation’s finances which she claimed would require hefty tax increases.

The Conservatives have said the Government would have to hike levies by £1,700 “per household per year” by 2030-31 to pay for unfunded spending promises.

They say this includes up to £17 billion for a National Care Service and £4 billion for council house-building, and a further £28 billion in “plausible spending pressures” identified by the Institute for Fiscal Studies.

“The Prime Minister gave the game away on Friday when he said he would have written the 2024 manifesto differently,” Mrs Badenoch said in an article for the Sunday Telegraph.

“Let me translate that. He wishes he had more room to raise taxes even further.”

A Treasury spokesperson responded: “This is fiction. The Budget meets our fiscal rules, fully funds our Defence Investment Plan and puts borrowing on a clear downward path.”

Meanwhile, a former economic adviser to Andy Burnham described the Budget as “small beer” that failed to quell the market’s fears about the Government’s policies.

Ex-Bank of England chief economist Andy Haldane was reminded of his recent comment that the market “suspects that this is a traditional tax-and-spend socialist government with better TikTok videos”.

He told the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg show: “The markets still have those fears.

“We are in a public finance mess.

“This week’s Budget did relatively little to appease those fears.

“A no score draw Budget for growth, a no score draw Budget for burnishing our fiscal credentials…

“More is needed of a radical nature. This week’s Budget was not that radical budget.”