Welfare

Debate between Stephen Crabb and Peter Kyle

Monday 21st March 2016 Commons Chamber

[Stephen Crabb]

It is about human beings, as I said in my statement. All the statistics that we talk about in this place have lives, families and individuals behind them, but it is especially important in the area of welfare and disability to remember that we are talking about human beings.

[Peter Kyle (Hove) (Lab)]

I welcome the Secretary of State to his post. As my right hon. Friend the Member for Normanton, Pontefract and Castleford (Yvette Cooper) pointed out, page 26 of the Red Book commits the Government to £3 billion of cuts to meet the welfare cap. Is this not what his predecessor described over the weekend as

“too focused on narrowly getting the deficit down”

at the expense of the poorest? Is the £3 billion going to be honoured, and how he is going to deliver that?

[Stephen Crabb]

I have a very direct answer to that very direct question. It is the one I have been giving all afternoon, which is that the Government will not be seeking further savings in the welfare budget.