My op-ed for the York Press this week:
It is the question I get asked more than any other on the doorsteps of York and across North Yorkshire. Where is the money coming from? People ask it about defence, about the NHS, about fixing the roads and about cutting their tax bill. It is not a hostile question. It is the most basic test of honesty in politics, and for too long our answer to it has been dodged rather than given.
Most people I speak to across Thirsk and Malton or Yorkshire more widely want the same few things from Westminster and none of it is complicated. A country that lives within its means. Taxes that do not punish people for working hard. A defence strong enough to keep us safe. None of that is party political. It is just common sense.
The trouble is that common sense has been in short supply lately. We have lived through a remarkable churn at the top, getting through prime ministers at a rate that would have astonished an earlier generation, and every change brings another round of upheaval and another year lost. What people want now is not more drama but a government that grips the basics, and the bill for not doing so is landing on all of us.
So let me answer my own question. The money has to come from getting a grip on the one part of the budget that has been allowed to run out of control: welfare. Spending on health and disability benefits alone is forecast to reach around £70 billion by the end of the decade. That is no criticism of those who genuinely need support, and a decent country will always look after the most vulnerable. But a system that large crowds out everything else. Every pound spent servicing it is a pound we cannot put into growth, into lower taxes or into our own security. It is working families, up in the dark every morning to do a hard day’s graft, who foot the bill.
That security point matters more than ever. These are dangerous times, with our NATO allies warning that Europe could face a serious threat before 2030. Funding our armed forces properly is no longer something we can put off for a better year. It needs to happen now, and the honest truth is that you cannot do it while the welfare bill keeps climbing unchecked. Something will have to give.
Kemi Badenoch has been the only senior figure in this debate prepared to say that plainly. While others have talked around the problem or promised reform and then backed away from it under pressure, she has been straight with the country about the scale of the challenge and what it will take to fix it. That kind of honesty is rare in politics and it should be recognised, not ducked.
So here is where the grown-up answer lies. Rather than shouting from the opposition benches, we have made the government a straightforward offer: work with us to reform welfare and control spending, and we will help you get it through Parliament. The principle is simple enough for the back of an envelope. Get a grip on what we spend and you free up the room to do everything else that matters: fund defence, ease the burden on working families, back the small businesses that keep our market towns alive and get the country growing again. It all connects.
This is not about scoring points. The previous Prime Minister tried to reform welfare last year and his own backbenchers stopped him. We are offering the votes to do the job, because we believe it is right for the country, not because it flatters anyone politically. What is needed now is for those in power to take the offer seriously rather than dodge the difficult questions, as too many have been doing.
Some will ask why we do not simply demand an election. The answer is that the country has had quite enough upheaval already and most people I speak to have little appetite for more. So rather than issue threats, we have held out an olive branch: work with us on the things that truly matter, the defence of the realm above all, and we will hold off calling for an election to give that a chance. I would far rather help fix the problem than fight over it.
Here in North Yorkshire we take a practical view of things. If your household is spending more than it earns, you do not carry on regardless and hope for the best. You get a grip on it, and the country is no different. There is a sensible deal on the table, one that would control spending, protect those who genuinely need help, fund our defence and let us cut taxes for the people who earn them. I very much hope, for all our sakes, that it is taken.
