Inner circle go public to turn on Truss over ‘benefits cut’

Cabinet ministers break ranks to warn Universal Credit should rise in line with inflation

THE Prime Minister is facing open rebellion from within her own Cabinet after it emerged she is considering a real-terms cut to benefits.

While Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng are questioning why Universal Credit should rise faster than private sector wages, Penny Mordaunt, Robert Buckland and Chloe Smith are all warning that benefits should rise in line with inflation – some doing so in public.

The open willingness of Cabinet ministers to argue against a measure being weighed up by their own leader became a symbol of fractured Tory unity yesterday, with some ministers privately calling for rebels to show more traditional Conservative values.

Mr Kwarteng, the Chancellor, yesterday indicated he understood the concerns of colleagues, saying he wanted a “humane society” – though fell short of ruling out a real-terms benefit cut.

Government policy is to increase Universal Credit, claimed by more than 5 million people, in line with inflation. But Ms Truss is considering linking it to average earnings, a lower figure.

The Cabinet rebellion broke out into the public yesterday, with Ms Mordaunt, the Leader of the Commons, publicly arguing that it “makes sense” for benefits to rise in line with inflation.

Mr Buckland, the Welsh Secretary, told the BBC’S Newsnight: “Every Conservative government that I’ve been part of has retained this safety net, and I’m sure this one will do the same.”

Ms Smith, the Work and Pensions Secretary, is also understood to be supportive of a rise in line with inflation, and is concerned about the most vulnerable people on Universal Credit, including the disabled who cannot work.

But Ms Truss stood firm. In an interview yesterday morning she refused to rule out benefit cuts, saying the Government must be “fiscally responsible” and cut the national debt.

Mr Kwarteng also did not promise an increase in line with inflation, though he did talk up the need for the Government to look after the least well-off.

The Chancellor said: “Compassionate conservatism is a good phrase and it’s something we think about in terms of policy.” He added: “We do have a duty to look after very vulnerable people.”

At present, Universal Credit rises each year along with inflation, which is currently about 10 per cent. Earnings, however, are rising much more slowly, at around 5.5 per cent. No 10 believes it would be fairer to link benefits to earnings to prevent the out-of-work having a larger pay rise than those in jobs.

But yesterday Ms Mordaunt told Times Radio: “I’ve 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. We want to make sure that people are looked after, and that people can pay their bills.”

Priti Patel, the former home secretary, also urged the Prime Minister not to impose a real-terms benefit cut. She told a fringe event at the Tory conference in Birmingham that the Government should be “giving people the support they need in terms of getting to work, but giving them the financial support as well where it’s needed”.

Sir Iain Duncan Smith, the former work and pensions secretary, said that when the Government is giving out a “huge package” of cost of living support, “it wouldn’t make a huge amount of sense to then withdraw some of that by actually reducing or not uprating benefits at the same time”.

“It doesn’t make any sense, otherwise the rest of society gets support but they end up getting less and relatively they’re the ones that need the most,” he said.

Sir Iain said he resigned in 2016 “because I felt that the then Government had lost the plot really on what the balance in society was about... I think to repeat that mistake would be wrong at this stage”.

Michael Gove, the former levelling up secretary, has also said benefits should be linked to inflation. Yesterday, he called for the extension of free school meals to all children from families on Universal Credit, saying it would be “more than worthwhile”.

Asked whether she would commit to increasing benefits in line with inflation, Ms Truss told the BBC: “We are going to have to make decisions about how we bring back down debt as a proportion of GDP in the medium term.” She declined to rebuke Ms Mordaunt, saying: “Cabinet ministers have to be able to talk publicly. And I’m a believer that we have these discussions where we agree a common position. Then we express those views.”

Speaking at a conference fringe event, Jacob Rees-mogg, the Business Secretary, said a decision had not yet been made. “I believe in the secrecy of the confessional,” he said. “I really don’t think Cabinet ministers should gossip

‘I really don’t think Cabinet ministers should gossip about the private advice they give to prime ministers’

about the private advice they give to prime ministers even if other people do.”

Last night, former culture secretary Nadine Dorries repeated her call for a general election, saying that Ms Truss did not have a mandate for her policies.

She told LBC Radio: “Conservative MPS have removed our most electorally successful prime minister for a generation and replaced him with Liz Truss. We can’t remove a prime minister and replace all the policies as well – it does not fit with what’s expected of a democratic state.”