Leak reveals Tories plan cuts deeper than pledged £47bn
Leaked remarks from shadow chancellor Andrew Griffith show the Conservatives are considering spending cuts beyond the £47bn already announced, should they win the next UK election. The party has confirmed it is looking to go further, ahead of its Birmingham conference.
Leaked comments from shadow chancellor Andrew Griffith suggest the UK Conservative party is weighing spending cuts that would go well beyond the £47bn already pledged, should it return to power after the next election. The remarks surfaced just before the party's annual conference in Birmingham.
Speaking roughly a year ago, when he was still shadow business secretary, Griffith told party members that shadow cabinet colleagues had discussed the need for further savings across "every part of government." He said the worsening state of the economy, combined with the party's ambition to cut taxes further, meant additional savings would be necessary. He framed this as consistent with core Conservative principles of a smaller state and letting people keep more of their earnings.
A party spokesperson confirmed the Conservatives are indeed seeking cuts beyond what has already been announced. Leader Kemi Badenoch is expected to unveil further savings at the Birmingham conference, including reductions to welfare spending and efforts to curb what she describes as wasteful government expenditure.
The previously announced £47bn package relies mainly on cutting welfare entitlements for non-British and non-EU citizens, eliminating roughly 132,000 civil service jobs, scrapping most of the governing Labour party's clean energy programme, and reducing international aid spending. On Friday, Badenoch pledged a further £4bn in cuts, including additional reductions to the aid budget and to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, with half of those savings earmarked for 50,000 new prison places.
Griffith, who previously worked in the Treasury under Kwasi Kwarteng and defended the controversial 2022 mini-budget, was promoted to shadow chancellor in August. Badenoch, who has cited Margaret Thatcher as her political hero, is positioning the Conservatives as the party of lower taxes and a smaller state, in contrast to Labour prime minister Andy Burnham's proposals for a national care service and public ownership of utilities. The Conservatives currently sit in third place in opinion polls, behind Labour and Reform UK.
