Kemi Badenoch denies 'taking a leaf' out of Nigel Farage's book as she announces welfare crackdown

In a press conference today, Mrs Badenoch vowed to "get Britain working again" with a robust plan to reform the welfare state.

She said: "Every person who gets off benefits and into work is a double-whammy for growth. We stop paying them to sit at home and they start paying into the system.

"This is how we reduce the tax burden, especially on businesses who are then able to go out, create more opportunity and more jobs.

"This is the opposite of Labour's current doom loop where they raise taxes and kill jobs so they then need to raise more taxes - that is not going to fix anything."

Challenged by Olivia on her plans being "straight from the Nigel Farage playbook", the Tory leader was pressed on whether she is "taking a leaf out of his book".

Mrs Badenoch responded: "Well, I'm taking a leaf out of the Conservative book, which is to make sure we talk about what we believe in and why.

"And I think for too long, actually, we didn't do that. We were so busy being in Government, we forgot to make the argument."

She stated: "I want us to start making arguments again, remind people not just what we're doing, but why we're doing it, why certain things didn't work.

"People said they weren't seeing enough of me, so I'm coming out as much as possible to make sure that they hear the Conservative message."

Quizzed again on her welfare plans being "similar to the beliefs" of the Reform UK leader, Mrs Badenoch disagreed: "Reform doesn't actually believe what we believe on welfare.

"They wanted to lift the two child benefit cap, paying families £3,500 pounds for every child that they have. This is on top of child benefit, which is not capped for a number of children. We're the only party who voted against that.

"We're the only party who stood up for all those hard working people out there, and I want them to know that there's only one party that's standing up for the working man and woman, for all those people who are struggling and feel that no one is speaking up for them. That's the Conservative Party."

Questioned further on her plans to reform the welfare policy, the Tory leader was asked whether she believes Britons are "deliberately gaming the system to get more money out of the state".

Mrs Badenoch told GB News: "There are definitely people gaming the system, we have seen evidence of it. You look on social media, you have these 'sickfluencers' who actually talk about how to call up the benefits office and say, you have anxiety, you can't turn up. We've just got to scrap that stuff.

"We need to be firm and fair, not just trying to be fair and accommodate everyone's wish. We also need to stop paying benefits to people who are not from this country. We've got reciprocal deals with the EU so that British citizens can get things in the EU, but with other countries we don't need to be paying benefits and giving everyone, you know, social housing and so on in the way that we are doing.

"We want people who come to our country to be able to contribute to our country, not just come here because it's an easy life and take us for a ride."

Noting that there needs to be a "creation of jobs" for young Britons, Mrs Badenoch concluded: "I think that it is a complex problem. It's not just laziness or entitlement, many of them don't have jobs to go to. Many employers are saying that they can't afford to employ young people, it’s too expensive, because they need a lot of training.

"We need to make sure we create the jobs and also have that pushed so that they understand that they've got to get to work. The welfare state doesn't exist for people who just don't feel like working."

Reform UK's welfare policy focuses on significant cuts, particularly targeting disability benefits like PIP by removing payments for anxiety, aiming to save billions, while also reforming Universal Credit (UC) to encourage work, reduce "sickness culture", as well as capping benefits.

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