'Same old Tories' unveil plan to cut benefits for 'low level' mental health conditions

The Tories have been accused of "rehashing failed promises" with new plans to slash benefits - despite the welfare bill ballooning on their watch.

Shameless Sir Mel Stride, who served as Work and Pensions Secretary under Rishi Sunak, will today vow to strip disability benefits from people with "low level" mental health conditions, such as anxiety and depression. He will also set out plans to bar non-British citizens from accessing welfare as part of efforts to cut £23billion from the welfare bill.

A Labour source told the Mirror: “Shameless Mel Stride personally oversaw the biggest increase in benefits spending in decades during his time in charge of DWP. But as no one knows who he is, he thinks people won’t realise this inconvenient fact.”

Sir Mel will also commit to reinstating the controversial two-child benefit limit if Labour scraps it in the Budget next month. The policy, which restricts claims for Child Tax Credit and Universal Credit to the first two kids, has been widely credited with pushing families into poverty.

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His cash-saving drive also includes pledges to cut cash for foreign aid by £7billion, and to save £8billion by slashing the size of the civil service.

There are now 517,000 civil servants, compared to 384,000 in 2016 - despite failed promises from Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt to cut numbers.

After the Tories promised to axe the Climate Change Act, Sir Mel will also set out plans to reduce green spending, including subsidies for heat pumps and electric vehicles.

In a speech to the Tory conference in Manchester, he will shamelessly claim that his party are the only ones who can be trusted on the economy.

He was expected to say: "The Conservative Party will never, ever make fiscal commitments without spelling out exactly how they will be paid for.

“We’re the only party that gets it. The only party that will stand up for fiscal responsibility. We must get on top of government spending.

“We cannot deliver stability unless we live within our means. No more pretending we can keep spending money we simply do not have.”

But he fails to mention Liz Truss’s economy-trashing mini Budget in 2022, which sent mortgage bills spiralling.

On Sunday, Ms Badenoch delivered a veiled swipe at the former Tory PM, saying the party will never again act with the “financial irresponsibility” of announcing £150bn of spending and massive tax cuts without any idea how to pay for it.

Labour Party chair Anna Turley said: "The Tories let welfare bills, civil service numbers and asylum hotel use skyrocket on their watch - and they’ve never apologised.

"Now they want to rehash failed promises from their failed manifesto to try to solve the problems they caused. This is the same old Tories, with the same old policies. They didn’t work then and you can't trust them now."

Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesperson Daisy Cooper said: “It’s clear the Conservative party learnt absolutely nothing from their disastrous handling of the economy, which left families struggling with a cost of living crisis and public services on their knees.

“Cutting vital support to bring household bills down, trying to balance the books on the backs of people with mental health conditions, and slashing the UK’s soft power abroad through aid budget cuts shows Trussonomics is still in full swing."

Romilly Greenhill, CEO of Bond, which represents organisations working in international aid, said: “The Conservatives’ deplorable decision to slash the already diminished UK aid budget even further is reckless, short-sighted, and morally indefensible. It undermines our legal obligations and signals the Conservatives want the UK to retreat even further as a trusted global partner.

"Marginalised communities who have already borne the brunt of previous cuts will once again pay the price, particularly women and girls and those experiencing conflict. Cutting UK aid doesn’t make us stronger, it makes the world, and the UK, less safe."

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