Tory leader says PM’s inability to make tough decisions and say ‘no’ to spending will lead to chaos in the economy
Daily Telegraph 03/09/26
Britain will go bankrupt under Andy Burnham, Kemi Badenoch has said.
The Conservative Party leader said the Prime Minister risked running out of money by making too many promises and being unable to say no to government departments.
In a speech on Thursday morning, Mrs Badenoch set out her plans to increase defence spending to 3 per cent of GDP by 2030 by slashing Britain’s welfare bill. Mr Burnham has so far declined to commit to the same target.
In a warning to the Prime Minister about the threat posed by Russia, Mrs Badenoch said: “Vladimir Putin called Britain Russia’s number one enemy. National security doesn’t just happen, we have to pay for it and that means spending more money on defence.”
Asked whether Mr Burnham would bankrupt Britain, she said: “If you listen to his statement on [Tuesday], I think the answer is ‘probably’, because he had so many requests for government spending, so many requests for taxpayers’ money.
“He didn’t say ‘no’ to anything. If someone doesn’t know how to say ‘no’, then, yes, they will run out of money. The problem with socialism is they always run out of other people’s money, not their own.”
Mrs Badenoch’s comments follow warnings from the City that Mr Burnham risked market turmoil unless he slashed spending.
The cost of long-term government borrowing hit its highest level since 1998 on Wednesday. The 10-year gilt yield – a benchmark for what the Treasury pays to borrow money – at one point rose to its highest level since 2007.
However, at his first Prime Minister’s Questions, Mr Burnham refused to rule out more borrowing.
Investors and economists warned that Britain would face a fresh surge in borrowing costs unless the he outlined credible plans to rein in the size of the state.
Lord O’Neill of Gatley, a former adviser to Mr Burnham, and Sir Charles Bean, a former official at the Office for Budget Responsibility, have called for the state pension triple lock to be scrapped after a surge in bond yields in recent days.
Meanwhile, the Prime Minister has faced increasing pressure from MPs to set out how he will increase defence spending amid warnings that “vibes alone” would not keep the nation safe.
Speaking on Thursday, Mrs Badenoch accused the Prime Minister of focusing on “parochial” politics, and said he would not be able to protect Britain from an attack by Russia with fixed bus prices.
Citing how Poland is building an army of 300,000 people, “more than triple ours”, she warned: “Let’s be honest, conflict is coming and we must act now.”
Mrs Badenoch added: “Andy Burnham is kicking defence spending into the long grass. Our enemies are not going to sit around and wait for Labour to find the money to fight them.”
She insisted that a future Tory government would find savings for defence through welfare reform.
The Conservatives have said their savings would include £4bn through housing benefit reforms, generating £3.1bn by reimposing the two-child benefit cap, ending the £1bn annual increase in the British Business Bank’s Industrial Strategy Capital and saving £1bn by ending VAT exemptions for Motability vehicles.
Other ways the Tories will raise funds include allocating £2.75bn from the National Wealth Fund to the National Defence and Resilience Bank, as part of the party’s Sovereign Defence Fund, moving £2bn of the Civil Research and Development budget into defence, and raising £200m a year by scrapping Labour’s Chagos Islands handover agreement.
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