'30?!' Camilla Tominey astounded as Pat McFadden vows to increase face-to-face benefits checks to '30 per cent'

Grilled by Camilla on what percentage he plans to increase the five per cent level of assessments to, the Work and Pensions Secretary told GB News: "Well, it's getting even worse than you think, Camilla."

The GB News host responded: "Why aren't you improving it then?"

Mr McFadden explained: "Shortly before the election, the previous secretary of state, who's now the Shadow Chancellor, signed off a load of contracts allowing the health assessors to work from home."

Camilla pressed Mr McFadden again, urging him to "give her a percentage".

She asked: "What are you trying to get them up to?"

The Work and Pensions Secretary revealed: "We are trying to get them up to 30 per cent from an almost complete collapse."

Taken aback by Mr McFadden's figure, Camilla repeated in disbelief: "30?! 30!?"

Mr McFadden then explained: "But I'm having to do that against a backdrop of inheriting a lot of contracts from the previous Government, which allow the health assessors to work from home.

"And that might mean that if you were in a position of going through a health assessment, the person who is doing it might not be in an office a few miles from where you live, they might be in a completely different part of the country."

Assuring GB News viewers that there are "a lot of changes" being made in the welfare system, Mr McFadden added: "There's a lot of change going on in the system to try to get these numbers back up after what I inherited from the Conservative Party."

Mr McFadden was also grilled by Camilla on Labour's plans to help young Britons who are unemployed, after it was revealed that 27 migrants are hired for every one British youngster.

Pressed on the matter, Mr McFadden told GB News that they must "try and get more opportunities for young people".

As Camilla argued that Labour has "made it worse", he responded: "It's been going up for years, we're in a trend here since post-Covid of sharply rising youth unemployment.

"What we've got to do is try to get more opportunity for young people. So from next month, for example, I'm introducing a hiring bonus of £3,000 for any employer who wants to take on a young person who's been out of work for six months or more from the autumn."

Mr McFadden also vowed the "change the apprenticeship system" following a 40 per cent decline in opportunities.

He concluded: "I'm also going to change the apprenticeship system, because your viewers will probably be shocked to hear that there's been a 40 per cent decline in youth apprenticeship starts over the past decade. We're going to change the funding of this system to direct more of that to youth apprenticeship starts.

"And on top of that, I'm going to give small and medium sized businesses a £2,000 hiring bonus if they'll take on a young apprentice.

"And if that young apprentice has been unemployed for six months or more, they can get the £2,000 and the £3,000 making £5,000 in total. So I want to help businesses to give young people a chance, because I think that's the right and the good thing to do."