TORIES PLEDGE TO SLASH £300BN COST OF WELFARE

MEL Stride will today promise to take a chainsaw to Britain's spiralling welfare bill as part of a £47billion Tory savings drive.

- Martyn Brown

The Shadow Chancellor insists that reducing the colossal £300billion cost of benefits is key to national stability.

He will use his speech at the Conservative Party conference to say the country cannot "keep spending money we simply do not have".

Some £23billion will come from cutting the welfare budget by replacing payments to people with "low-level" mental health conditions with treatment, because that is "what is really needed".

Other reforms include barring non-UK citizens from claiming support. The move to shrink the benefits bill will put clear water between the Tories and Labour.

Sir Keir Starmer was forced to scale down his welfare reforms earlier this year due to a growing backlash from his backbenchers.

Nigel Farage has also promised to cut benefits if Reform UK were to enter government.

Sir Mel is set to commit his party to keeping the two-child benefit cap or reinstating it if it is scrapped at next month's Budget, as has been widely tipped.

The Tory veteran will use his keynote speech in Manchester to signal that the country must "live within our means".

Promising to "never, ever make fiscal commitments without spelling out exactly how they will be paid for", Sir Mel will say: "We're the only party that gets it.