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Could Badenoch really help Starmer on welfare reform?
The Independent
|September 11, 2025
By common consent, Kemi Badenoch didn't just enjoy her best session at Prime Minister's Questions - faint praise - but one where she clearly got the better of Sir Keir Starmer.
That was on the sensitive matter of his appointment of Peter Mandelson to be ambassador in Washington. Her tactics at PMQs may turn out to be a turning point for her leadership, or could just be false hope for the Conservatives. But it's her proposal to work with Labour on welfare reform that raises some more strategic questions for the party...
What is Badenoch offering Starmer on welfare reform?
Something that sounds very collegiate and even patriotic - superficially, at least. In her words: “The shadow chancellor, shadow welfare secretary and I are making him a clear offer. Sit down with us. Let’s agree a way to bring welfare spending down. And I will offer him the support of the Conservative Party... This is an offer to work together in the national interest to find common ground and get a serious plan.”
Her condition is to keep the two-child cap on child benefit, and for Labour to agree an unquantified reduction in welfare spending (in essence, the 2024 Tory manifesto policy).
This story is from the September 11, 2025 edition of The Independent.
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