Lib Dem Leader Ed Davey says planned welfare cuts "really alarming"

The cuts to benefits announced by Labour are “really alarming”. It is wrong to hit those out of work because of sickness and disability, Sir Ed Davey has said.

Many of the planned cuts “just should not happen” the Lib Dem leader said as he arrived at the party’s spring conference in Harrogate.

Experts estimate that around a million people in England and Wales will lose their disability benefits as part of the overhaul, which the Government believes will save more than £5 billion a year by the end of the decade.

“I’m in favour of helping people into work who can work, whether it’s with training, with health or special equipment,” Sir Ed told the PA news agency.

“What I’m not in favour of is hitting people who are sick and disabled, who can’t work.

“And the more we’ve looked at the details, because they were pretty vague to begin with… we’re beginning to understand what they’re proposing. “And I think it’s really alarming, and many of these just should not happen."

Sir Ed Davey added: “I think the Labour Government has performed really poorly. They went into the elections saying that growth was their number one priority, and yet we’ve seen growth stalled.”

Earlier in the week, Sir Ed told Prime Minister Keir Starmer that Labour were wrong to vote against a Lib Dem amendment to exempt care homes from Labour's really damaging increase in National Insurance. If more care homes have to close, that means more people will be stuck in hospital when they are fit to leave. In turn, that means longer delays for people waiting for the hospital treatment, and it is that hospital treatment that would in some cases help them get back to work. 

Sir Ed Davey's Lib Dems believe that improving the NHS and social care should help get more people back into work and that is the best way of reducing the total amount spent on welfare.