'We should be cutting taxes, but we can't because explosion of benefits have reached unprecedented levels'
Daniel Kawczynski has called for tax cuts for entrepreneurs who create businesses and employ people
PA
I am disappointed that candidates for Leadership of the Conservative Party have not said more about how they intend to review and restrict the number of benefits which people are claiming.
The only politician in my lifetime who balanced the budget for Britain was Margaret Thatcher as she realised what the long-term consequences would be if Britain could not pay for herself.
Unfortunately, unlike her, politicians have for decades failed to take the difficult decisions necessary to balance the books and get a grip on the state of the public finances.
People in countries like France, Britain, Italy and many other western liberal democracies have taken more out of the system then they have put in every year for decades.
The resulting deficits have been papered over by borrowing which you should normally only do at acute times of economic difficulty or during a crisis, but it seems this has been happening every year for the last 30 years.
On top of this in an increasingly interdependent world we are affected by global disasters which play havoc with our economies.
"We can't cut taxes for them because of this explosion of benefits which have reached unprecedented levels," says Daniel Kawczynski
PA
The 2008 Financial Crisis, the pandemic and the energy crisis following the invasion of Ukraine have all led to massive additional borrowing of hundreds of billions of pounds which has tipped some countries above 100 per cent debt to GDP ratio.
We should be cutting taxes for entrepreneurs who create businesses and employ people.
They are pouring out of this country because of pernicious levels of taxation and moving to places like Dubai or beyond where corporation tax is a fraction of what it is in Britain.
Of course we can't cut taxes for them because of this explosion of benefits which have reached unprecedented levels.
At a time of growing competition from China and the Far East where wages and costs are far lower we should be doing more to help our companies to compete by cutting corporation tax but again not possible due to the £258billion that flows out of the Treasury in benefits.
This trend of massive public borrowing will continue until we finally see politicians who are prepared to do the unthinkable and challenge the sheer scale of costs and benefits which the British people take out of the country.
Here in the UK, a staggering 22.6 million were claiming some sort of benefit as of August 2023.
The number of benefits has mushroomed over the years and many people claim more than one benefit at any one time.
As a result of the plethora of benefits now claimable, the British government is expected to fork out in the financial year 2023/24 around £258.4billion.
That's more than many countries around the world have as their entire budget, but here in the UK, that is just the bill for benefits.
I asked a senior Ambassador today what he thought was the total benefits bill in the UK per annum.
A highly intelligent man, he replied around £20billion. He was amazed to hear me say it was over £250billion.
Every time any politician has the temerity to question the generosity and scale of any of these benefits, the media and electorate come down on them like a ton of bricks.
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I have struggled to find the full list of all the benefits that people claim but of course we have Child Benefit, Housing Benefit, Employment and Support allowances, Job Seeker's Allowance, health related benefits, Universal Credit, Carer's Allowance, Pension Credit, Disability Living Allowance, maternity, and the list goes on and on.
John F Kennedy in his inaugural address stated, "Ask not what your country can do for you ask what you can do for your country" .
It seems as a society we have forgotten those wise words from a great Statesman. Britain's future is bleak if benefits continue to rise at such a staggering pace.
Benefits together with debt interest payments amount for over £350billion a year pouring out of the Exchequer, and this is before a single new hospital is built or school or road.
Politicians don't want to challenge the electorate over these costs and almost nothing about this crisis was mentioned during the election campaign by media pundits.
Margaret Thatcher proved Britain can pay for herself it's about time we had a Leader who was prepared to have the courage she had.
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