Liz Truss has been told by a member of her Cabinet that it “makes sense” for benefits payments to rise in line with inflation.
Penny Mordaunt, the Leader of the House of Commons and a former Conservative Party leadership contender, told Times Radio that she has “always supported” both pensions and welfare support rising alongside inflation.
After U-turning on plans to scrap the 45p tax rate for top earners after pressure from backbench MPs, the Prime Minister is now facing uproar in some quarters of her party over speculation that the Government could oversee a real-terms cuts to benefits in a bid to reduce public spending.
Ms Truss and her Cabinet allies have so far declined to say whether welfare payments will be increased in line with soaring inflation, prompting concerns from some senior ex-ministers and backbenchers amid a fractious Conservative Party conference in Birmingham.
In an intervention that will put further pressure on the Prime Minister, Ms Mordaunt said: “I have always supported, whether it’s pensions, whether it’s our welfare system, keeping pace with inflation. It makes sense to do so. That’s what I voted for before and so have a lot of my colleagues.”
But the move might not be popular with everyone.
Despite the use of food banks going through the roof and reports that many people might have to choose between heating or eating this winter, Telegraph readers say a hike in welfare payments would be an insult to ‘hard workers’.
Raymond Forster said: “Now it looks like Kwasi Kwarteng is getting on the redistribution train.
“How can it be right that those who pay for the benefits wind up getting lower pay rises than those they effectively ‘pay’ themselves? This is madness.”
Clive Chopping added: “Mordaunt is a disgrace to the Party. There is no way that people in work or the self-employed should be getting a lower rise than those on benefits.
“That is not a Tory policy; it is a socialist one, and if Mordaunt really believes that she should join Labour or the Lib Dems.”
Don Murray chimed in: “Here’s an idea: If you’re fit for work, you will be found a job.
“There are a million vacancies and absolutely no excuse to be unemployed, and certainly no reason to expect a pay rise when those paying you don’t get one.”
While one person who just went by CC said: “I think the Party is reading the country wrong on this. Hard working people and the self-employed will not welcome a policy which gives those on benefits a higher rise than them, and rightly so.”
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