Mel Stride (Image: Getty)

       We are spending far too much on too many people who could otherwise be in work. This helps nobody.

       I believe in fairness and the value of hard work. People should be encouraged to get to work if they can. It’s good for people, good for their local community and good for the economy.

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       Glaring in the face of the new Work and Pensions Secretary is an unsustainable post-covid rise in the welfare bill. We set out and were well into the implementation of a clear and robust plan to tackle it.

       Without action, the cost of providing benefits to the working-age population with a disability or health condition will rise to ￡90 billion. More than we spend on our national defence, schools or policing.

       It is no longer a question of if, but when welfare must be fundamentally reformed.

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       The King’s Speech was a key opportunity to better understand the priorities of the new Prime Minister.

       Both in terms of what it said but also what it left unsaid. Welfare was not mentioned once.

       That is not only unsustainable, but unfair to taxpayers.

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       It is shocking that people are now three times more likely to be assessed as not fit for work than they were a decade ago. Worklessness should not be a default option.

       People are helped by work and the government should make it an absolute priority.

       In government I laid out a plan to reduce the welfare bill significantly and to encourage and support as many people as we could back into work. It is still unclear whether the Labour Party will follow this sensible approach. Their silence has been deafening.

       Not reforming the welfare system so it is fit for the present day means writing off hundreds of thousands of people, even if they can work. The government should help people to help themselves. But sadly there doesn’t seem to be any appetite in the Labour party to do so.

       In office I set out the way forward including Work Capability Assessment reform which the OBR indicates will see 420,000 fewer people on long term sickness and disability benefits.

       We commenced a consultation on the Personal Independence Payment to make it more effective at helping those who need the help the most whilst recognising the need to control unsustainable costs.

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       We have already shown the route to fundamental and effective reform.

       Along with high levels of employment, low unemployment and economic inactivity lower than during every year of the last Labour government we have left this plan as yet another positive inheritance for the Labour Party.

       If Labour pursues it we will support them. If they duck it – they let the country down.

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