By GREG HEFFER, POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT Published: 12:39 BST, 8 October 2025 | Updated: 13:02 BST, 8 October 2025
Kemi Badenoch today set out Tory plans to save £23billion from Britain's ballooning welfare bill as she pledged tougher rules on Motability vehicles and benefit payments.In her keynote speech to the Conservative conference in Manchester, Mrs Badenoch said her party would restrict access to handouts.She vowed the Tories, if they returned to power, would ensure Motability vehicles only go to those with 'serious disabilities'.'Those cars are not for people with ADHD,' she told party members on Wednesday.Mrs Badenoch also outlined Conservative proposals to bar foreign nationals from claiming benefits as part of her 'blueprint' for Britain.She promised 'British benefits for British citizens', adding it was 'common sense that you should not draw out of a system that you haven't paid into'.The Tories' proposed squeeze on welfare is part of a total £47billion in spending cuts identified by the party.Mrs Badenoch said half of those savings would go towards reducing the deficit, with the rest helping to 'unleash our economy' with tax cuts - including an eye-catching promise to abolish stamp duty for homebuyers. Kemi Badenoch today set out Tory plans to save £23billion from Britain's ballooning welfare bill as she pledged tougher rules on Motability vehicles and benefit payments In her keynote speech to the Conservative conference in Manchester, Mrs Badenoch said her party would restrict access to handouts She vowed the Tories , if they returned to power, would ensure Motability vehicles only go to those with 'serious disabilities'The Tory leader said: 'If we want to end our overreliance on immigration, then we must make sure that every British citizen who can work does work.'Right now there are 6.5million working-age adults claiming benefits instead of working.'That is the entire population of Cardiff and Belfast and Glasgow and Manchester combined.'Being paid to sit at home all day. We cannot expect people to get up and go to work and pay more and more in taxes in order to subsidise millions of others not to work.'It should not be controversial to say this.'Mrs Badenoch set out a three-part plan to cut welfare spending as the 'first steps of a radical reform of our welfare system'.'First, British benefits for British citizens. It is common sense that you should not draw out of a system that you haven't paid into,' she said.'Second, we will restrict benefits to those with the more severe mental health conditions - not anxiety or mild depression.'Yes these challenges are real and people should get support, but they cannot be treated as a reason for a lifetime off work.'Third, we will restrict Motability vehicles to people with serious disabilities - those cars are not for people with ADHD.'The Tory leader said her party would return Britain's welfare system to the 'founding principle' that 'support only goes to those that really need it'.'This should be common sense. But only the Conservatives understand this,' she added.Mrs Badenoch highlighted how, after the Covid pandemic, two thousand people a day were being signed onto out of work benefits.'It is a national tragedy that in just one year of Labour, the latest figure has more than doubled,' she continued.'Five thousand new people are signing on each and every single day.'Many are young people who are losing the chance to make something of themselves, never knowing what it's like to pay their own way.'
