WATCH: 'You never stopped it!' Camilla Tominey GRILLS Mel Stride on benefits for foreigners

GB News

Camilla Tominey pressed Shadow Chancellor Mel Stride on why the Conservative Government allowed foreign nationals to claim disability benefits during their 14 years in power, fuming, "you never stopped it".The fierce exchange came as the Conservatives announced new proposals to restrict Personal Independence Payments (Pip) and Universal Credit health top-ups to British citizens only.Under current rules, foreign nationals can claim these benefits, worth up to £1,200 monthly, if they have lived in Britain for two of the past three years.Speaking on GB News, Camilla said: "There are many people watching and listening to this, Mel Stride, who might wonder: why on earth can foreigners claim disability benefits? And why did the Tories allow that to happen over the last 14 years?"READ THE FULL STORY HERE

Transcript

00:00You should be hearing me now. Lovely to see you this morning. Thank you, as ever, for coming on the show.

00:04Have you reached out to the Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, since she was crying in the Commons on Wednesday?

00:13Yes, I did. It was deeply distressing to have witnessed it.

00:16And, of course, I wasn't that far away, just opposite the table of the house there.

00:22Yes, so I messaged her shortly after PMQs, basically to say that I felt for her.

00:27And I hope that she was OK.

00:30And there's a report in the Mail on Sunday this morning suggesting that the Tories warned Labour about Rachel's tears 17 minutes before PMQs.

00:40So did you see that, Mr Stride? Did you see that she was distressed quite a long time before anyone else picked up on that?

00:51No, I didn't, Camilla. In fact, the first time I became aware of the situation was when Rachel came in and sat down.

00:59And then it was immediately apparent that everything was not really right.

01:03And, as I say, really quite, you know, quite upsetting to see it, really.

01:07It's very upsetting.

01:08And she's obviously cited personal reasons.

01:12But it is significant for the country, isn't it, if a Chancellor is seen to be in distress in public.

01:18It has implications for the markets.

01:21They didn't react well to what they were seeing.

01:23We then have resignation rumours flying around.

01:26Can we be honest here?

01:28Can we cut to the chase and say that perhaps this woman who did embellish her CV simply isn't up to the job?

01:35Well, I think I don't want to sort of personalise this around what happened at Prime Minister's questions,

01:44which we are told that there was a personal reason why Rachel was very distressed.

01:51I think we should just respect that.

01:53But stepping away from that situation, of course, absolutely terrible mistakes have been made with our economy,

02:00not just by this Chancellor but also by the Prime Minister, in terms of being a government that came in saying

02:07they weren't going to put up everybody's taxes, then clobbering businesses and destroying growth.

02:12They then have gone out and borrowed vast amounts of money, stoked up inflation,

02:16so we've got interest rates higher for longer, which is hitting people and businesses up and down the country.

02:22And, of course, overall mismanaging the economy by destroying the so-called fiscal headroom

02:28that the Chancellor has against her targets, which is going to mean, I'm afraid, increased taxes in the autumn,

02:35which are going to be really difficult for a lot of people who are already struggling

02:39because of the choices taken by this Chancellor.

02:42Well, this is what I can't quite understand.

02:44You've written to the Office for Budget Responsibility saying, goodness me,

02:48we need clarification of Britain's finances, we need new forecasts.

02:52I can see, Mel, that you're competing there with a team of children walking into the BBC.

02:57So bear with me.

02:59You've written to the OBR, we've got the Chancellor in tears on Wednesday,

03:03which rocks the financial markets.

03:06At some point or other, and Robert Jenrick has said this,

03:09he's said she needs to consider her position.

03:12I can't quite understand why you won't say that.

03:14You're clearly concerned about the Chancellor's policies.

03:17You're concerned about the negative impact of the autumn budget.

03:22You've written this letter to the OBR saying, my God, the state of our finances are appalling.

03:27And yet, whenever I ask you, should the Chancellor consider her position,

03:32you play Mr Nice Guy.

03:33She needs to consider her position, doesn't she?

03:35Because Britain's economy is tanking, according to the Tories.

03:39Well, Camilla, look, they should all go, OK?

03:44And if Rachel goes, the Prime Minister should definitely go.

03:48We've had, look, we've had far too long over the last year of broken promises.

03:53You know, a government that said, for example,

03:55they wouldn't tax our farmers and then came and did exactly that.

03:58They said they wouldn't means test the winter fuel payments for pensioners.

04:02Then they did exactly that.

04:03They said they wouldn't put up our taxes left, right and centre, including national insurance.

04:07And they did exactly that.

04:09And we've now seen a government that is so chaotic.

04:11It's almost you turning by the minute.

04:14You turning on the winter fuel payment.

04:16You turning on our pressure for them to have a national inquiry into grooming gangs.

04:20You turning under pressure from their own back benches just last week on welfare,

04:26which is leading to this growing black hole of unfunded commitments, OK?

04:30There's about £6 billion, £7 billion of those lying around.

04:34And that's why I wrote to the OBR, is that what this government said was

04:38they would not get into the business of unfunded commitments.

04:41And we don't know what the figures are now going to be looking like.

04:44And yet we're taking big decisions in Parliament.

04:46So when you say they should all go,

04:48you're saying that the Prime Minister and the Chancellor should consider their positions

04:50and resign?

04:53I think the whole front bench is, you know,

04:57taking us, taking our country in entirely the wrong direction.

05:02Should they resign?

05:03I believe that the Prime Minister is so...

05:05Look, I think they should all go, right?

05:07I don't want to see a Labour government.

05:09I don't know why we keep playing these word games.

05:12Well, no, you're playing word games.

05:14You want them to be voted out or you want them to resign?

05:16I'm saying that I think given the...

05:22Your question to me was, you know, do you think they should stay in place?

05:25I think the whole lot of them are not fit for purpose.

05:28It's quite obvious that the way that the economy is being mismanaged at the moment

05:33is hitting people right up and down our country.

05:36And I'm afraid it's possibly going to get even worse in the autumn.

05:39So, you know, that's not a record that would substantiate most people staying in their roles.

05:44OK.

05:45All right.

05:46Let's move on to a story on the front page of the Sunday Telegraph.

05:49Axe sickness benefits for foreigners, Tories urge.

05:54Many people watching and listening to this mail stride might wonder why on earth foreigners can claim disability benefits

06:02and why the Tories allowed that to happen, presumably for the last 14 years.

06:10So, what we're putting forward, Camilla, is an amendment to the welfare bill such as it is.

06:16This has been largely gutted by this government.

06:18But what remains of it, to basically say that the government should come forward with a discussion document

06:24to look at this whole area.

06:26Because we do believe that British citizenship should mean something.

06:29And when it comes to welfare, we know that the costs are ever spiraling upwards.

06:36And we need to get that under control.

06:38And that's a big dividing line between ourselves and Labour.

06:40And indeed, between ourselves and reform.

06:42We want to spend more, for example, by removing the two-child benefit cap.

06:50So, we believe there should be a serious discussion about this in terms of arresting the size of the welfare bill.

06:57Why on earth did the Tories allow people who aren't UK citizens to claim benefits of up to £1,200 a month?

07:10Why on earth didn't you do something about it when you were actually in power?

07:17So, what we did do, and I was Secretary of State at Work and Pensions for the last 18 months of the last government,

07:23was to bring in some very fundamental reforms around the work capability assessment.

07:27That's the gateway into these long-term sickness and disability benefits.

07:30And the OBR actually scored those reforms as meaning £5 billion worth of savings and seeing 450,000 fewer people going on to those benefits

07:41and actually then instead heading in towards the world of work.

07:45And we had, just if I could finish, we had very detailed plans, particularly around personal independence payments

07:51that we'd already consulted on.

07:53And then the general election interrupted that process.

07:57And all of these kind of other issues, which we would have brought forward had we been elected,

08:02to make very substantial savings.

08:04In our manifesto, we had a further £12 billion of savings per year.

08:08So, that was the clear direction of travel, backed up by the fact that we'd actually proved that we could make

08:14very significant savings on welfare.

08:16But you didn't ever say, while in office, that you should stop foreigners from claiming sickness benefits, did you?

08:22So, there is a moment in time at which all sorts of policies come forward.

08:28We are under new leadership under Kemi Bader Dock.

08:31This is, I think, a very important area that we should be looking at.

08:35But, Camilla, that shouldn't detract from the very important things that, firstly, we did when we were in office

08:40to grip welfare, and, secondly, the very clear plans, fully funded, fully costed plans we had,

08:45are going much, much further.

08:47I know you did things to grip welfare, and I think we should give Ian Duncan Smith credit for reducing that welfare bill

08:56by £31 billion.

08:57But let me ask you this, Mel Stride.

08:59How much would you reduce the welfare bill by now?

09:03Because Jeremy Hunt, of all people, is saying, let's shave £50 billion off it.

09:07How much would you shave off it?

09:09Give me a figure now.

09:09Yeah. So, we are going through a policy development process that will take some time.

09:17At the time of the next election, we will have absolutely clear proposals as to exactly what we are going to do.

09:23We don't know what the world is going to look like in four years' time.

09:27But what I am saying is that we have a track record of getting on top of welfare spending and making savings,

09:32and that was £5 billion when I was Secretary of State, and about half a million, half a million people, fewer people,

09:39going on to those benefits, as confirmed by the OBR.

09:43And we went into the last election with further savings of £12 billion a year.

09:47And, yes, there is indeed more work and more thinking to be done.

09:51On the issue of foreign nationals, we think it's important that British citizenship means something.

09:55We think it's important that we get on top of welfare bills around that particular issue.

10:02And our amendment is calling on the government to come forward with a discussion document

10:05so that we can go into that area of policy in greater detail.

10:09Because we need to get on top of the welfare bill in a way that this government has basically given up on,

10:14and in a way that reform is prepared to spend even more on welfare when you look at things like the two-child cap.

10:21And we don't think that's right.

10:22We think work matters, Camilla, more than just being on benefits.

10:26It's getting people into work that matters.

10:29Work matters.

10:29We're both working on a Sunday morning, and I'm grateful, as ever, for your contribution, Mel Stride.

10:33Thank you very much indeed.

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