Labour Party leader Keir Starmer has expressed his support for benefit claimants to look for work but acknowledged that there would be “hard cases” where the government and businesses should step in to help anxious individuals transition back into the workforce. Speaking on the BBC’s Today programme following his conference speech, Starmer said, “the basic proposition that you should look for work is right.” He further expressed the need for support for those who have been on long-term sickness and have fears about re-entering the workplace.
In recent years, the inactivity rate, the number of people not working and not looking for work, has surged during the pandemic and has remained persistently high. Presently, around 3 million people in the UK are out of work due to ill health, 500,000 more than in 2019. The Office for Budget Responsibility has estimated that the cost of sickness and disability benefits will rise by £30bn within the next five years.
Labour has proposed a measure to send doctors who are experts in speeding up operations to areas with the highest number of people out of work due to ill health. Health Secretary Wes Streeting will announce the measure to Labour activists on the final day of the conference in Liverpool. The best of the NHS will aid in “getting sick Brits back to health and back to work.”
The prime minister also spoke about other trade-offs he mentioned in his speech, such as the need for pylons if cheaper electricity is desired. While Boris Johnson acknowledged people’s concerns about pylons, he noted that “we want cheaper electricity, we need cheaper power, we can’t pretend that can be done without the need for pylons above the ground.” On illegal migration, Starmer stated that a backlog of tens of thousands of asylum seekers have been waiting to have their claim processed, criticizing the previous Conservative government for “pretending there’s some magical way to wish away that number.”
The Labour leader has promised that if he forms a government, he will prioritize processing the backlog and return those who have no right to be in the UK. Johnson scrapped the Conservative government’s Rwanda scheme, which aimed to deter people from trying to enter the UK illegally by crossing the Channel in small boats, saying that the policy was an expensive gimmick. The government intends to tackle the smuggling gangs that arrange the crossings
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