Pat McFadden was left squirming on BBC Breakfast (Image: BBC)
turned tense as presenter skewered Cabinet minister Pat McFadden on the party’s manifesto – and why it did not include significant changes to welfare. Labour has announced huge reforms to how benefits are handled in the UK but made no mention of the proposed changes at the last , in which they comprehensively defeated the
Kay started the discussion by asking: “You were in charge of the Labour manifesto, weren’t you, at the General Election which is only, what, eight months ago? I was just looking through it this morning – there was hardly any mention of welfare in there, certainly not on the scale of reform and cuts we’re now talking about. Shouldn’t you have been a bit more upfront – a lot more upfront – so people would have been better prepared for these changes?”
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Jon Kay interrupted the MP when his questions went unanswered (Image: BBC)
Mr McFadden, who as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster has a role across Government, was clearly left squirming as he responded: “We’re the party of work. We always want to see people in work. We’re not comfortable with the situation where we’ve got 1,000 people a day applying for one of these benefits, 1,000 new people a day where the numbers have grown so much in recent years and where the UK is an outlier compared to other countries of similar incomes.”
Kay quickly cut him off – pointing out that Mr McFadden had not answered the direct question put to him. He interrupted: “Okay, I get that, but as you say these figures go back over years. You say the system is broken and has been for years, so why didn’t you mention it in your manifesto? Why didn’t you tell the country what you were clearly planning and wanting to do?”
Mr McFadden responded: “Well look, the system that we’re bringing forward today is in line with what we’ve always wanted to do – have a welfare state that’s there for people who need support but also to get the maximum support available for people to get into work.
“I don’t think anyone can be comfortable with the trends of recent years. When you are a government it’s your job to face up to big challenges facing the country, and I think reforming the welfare state is a big challenge facing the country and we want to get that right today. So we’ll be bringing forward a package which will get support to people who need it but also increase the chances of people getting work in the future.”