Welfare Spending

Debate between Danny Kruger and Luke Murphy

Tuesday 15th July 2025 Commons Chamber

[Danny Kruger]

It just doesn’t flow as well, but yes, apologies Madam Deputy Speaker.

[Luke Murphy]

In 2023, the shadow Minister said:

“The narrative that the public has now firmly adopted—that over 13 years things have got worse—is one we just have to acknowledge and admit.”

Does he still acknowledge and admit that things got worse under his Government?

[Danny Kruger]

I am grateful to the hon. Member’s archaeology in finding my previous quotes. Many things did get worse over the last decade and a half—of course I recognise that. But much of it was as a consequence of the global financial meltdown that his party presided over. We spent many painful years fixing the deficit that Labour left us.

I want to quickly cite the previous Government’s record on young people. Labour Members have boasted of the new Labour years, but in 1997 youth unemployment stood at 650,000, and by the time Blair and Brown had finished in 2010 it was up a third to 940,000. When we left office 14 years later, we had almost halved it down to 560,000—lower even than in 1997. That is the Conservative record.

I will conclude shortly, but I first say to those across the House who want to lift the child benefit cap to consider what they are asking. They are asking working people who pay more in tax than they receive in public services—and who themselves have had to take agonising decisions about whether or not they can afford to have another child given the taxes they pay—to fund the benefits for other people who receive more from the system than they pay in.