Tory Robert Jenrick: slash benefits to fund 2p income tax cut

The UK's benefits bill should be reduced to pre-pandemic levels to allow ministers to cut income tax by 2p in the pound, Robert Jenrick said today.

The Tory leadership candidate laid out his vision for Britain's economy in a wide-ranging speech extoling the virtues of a Thatcherite, small-state, lower-regulation Britain.

He told an audience in Westminster that 100,000 civil servants should be sacked, 'failed' universities should be replaced with 'apprenticeship hubs' and the planning system reformed to build more houses.

But he also argued for 'responsible' tax cuts funded by getting more people back into work under what he said was 'a simple agenda'.

'Rather than a big state that fails we need a small state that works,' he said. 

'I am setting a simple target: we will bring the inactivity rate back down to its pre-pandemic level, bringing almost 500,000 people back into the workforce.'

This, he said, would cut the welfare bill by £12billion, enough to fund a 2p income tax cut.

But asked whether he was committing to proposing such a tax cut if he became leader, he rowed back, saying: 'We are not in government and I'm not going to write the manifesto for four or five years' time.

'But I have set out what the choice is. That's within our grasp if the Labour Government make the right decisions.'

Mr Jenrick also stressed the need to cut taxes 'responsibly', arguing the Liz Truss mini-budget had been a 'damaging episode' as it had paired tax cuts with 'massive spending' on support for energy bills - something he described as 'the largest single welfare bailout, I think, in our country's modern history'.

His speech came as voting began in the membership round of the Conservative leadership contest, which sees Mr Jenrick face off with former business and trade secretary Kemi Badenoch, who is widely seen as the frontrunner.

But Mr Jenrick insisted his campaign had 'momentum' as he argued the Conservative Party faced 'an existential challenge'.

Ms Badenoch is expected to hold a virtual rally of her own on Wednesday evening.

Conservative members have until October 31 to vote for their preferred leader, with the result announced on November 2.