We’ll cut the welfare bill, minister says

Business Secretary, Jonathan Reynolds has said he is confident the Government will cut the welfare bill. Speaking on Sunday, Reynolds said he is “very confident” Andy Burnham will reduce the UK’s large welfare bill. He told Sky News: “I feel, if I’m being honest, in the first two years, a lot of that conversation about that piece of legislation was about the saving, what that meant. “Now that budget does need to come down, but you’ve got to give people that positive proposition. So I’m very, very confident.” Follow The i Paper’s live blog for the latest updates. We’ll cut the welfare bill, minister says Sort: September 6, 2026 9:35 amBusiness secretary accuses Zia Yusuf of ‘straightforward racism’ Business secretary Jonathan Reynolds has condemned comments about a potential Labour candidate in an upcoming parliamentary by-election “pretty straightforward racism”.(Photo: Rasid Necati Aslim/Anadolu via Getty Images)Speaking to Sky News, Reynolds was asked about remarks made by Reform UK’s home affairs spokesperson, Zia Yusuf. Yusuf made the comments following the triggering of a Holborn and St Pancras by-election, caused by Sir Keir Starmer resigning as an MP on Monday. A potential Labour candidate to replace Starmer is a Somali-born former refugee. Upon learning about this, Yusuf wrote on X: “The front runner being foisted on the people of Holborn by Labour to replace the former Prime Minister Keir Starmer in our Parliament was born in Somalia.“Do you understand what’s happening?”The front runner being foisted on the people of Holborn by Labour to replace the former Prime Minister Keir Starmer in our Parliament was born in Somalia.Do you understand what’s happening?— Zia Yusuf (@ZiaYusufUK) September 2, 2026About the post, Reynolds said it is: “Pretty straightforward racism, isn’t it? “I mean, there’s a potential candidate reference there. Spent decades in this country, huge contribution to her local community. So I think that speaks for itself.”Challenged that he believes this is “plain racism”, Reynolds replied: “Absolutely.” September 6, 2026 9:31 amWhat my day in a Blackpool job centre tells us about the UK’s benefits crisis The i Paper’s Vicky Spratt visits the Department for Work and Pensions’ job centre in Blackpool, where the Neet rate is almost double the national average (Photo: Alex Lancaster-Lennox)Much about Blackpool has been in decline for years. People living in this Lancashire seaside town have seen their life expectancy fall to the lowest level of any place in England. Labour hasn’t held its annual political conference here since 2022. Until very recently, there were no deckchairs on the beach because the council sold them off in 2014.One statistic, however, has been going up: unemployment, particularly among 16-24-year-olds.Nearly one in four young people in this age bracket here are what’s known as Neet – not in education, employment or training – according to the interim report of Labour’s youth unemployment tsar, Alan Milburn.Blackpool has a Neet rate of 7.6 per cent, compared to a national average in England of 3.4 per cent.Milburn tells me he was moved by what he saw in Blackpool, describing the scale of youth inactivity there as “a disaster zone for young people that demands urgent national attention.”So, what has gone so wrong here in the north-west?‘It can mess up your whole life’At the Jobcentre Plus just a few streets behind the iconic Blackpool Illuminations, Tracy, a Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) youth specialist job coach, is speaking to a young woman named Kim. Both did not want to give their surnames.Read the full story here. September 6, 2026 9:20 amBusiness secretary: The government is not ‘kicking the can down the road’ on defence Business secretary Jonathan Reynolds denied that the government is ‘kicking the can down the road’ when asked about its commitment on defence spending.Speaking with Sky News, Reynolds was asked about the government’s commitment to spend 3.5% of GDP on defence by 2035.“That is our NATO commitment,” he said. “So the trajectory that’s setting out that path is absolutely vital. “Don’t forget, defence spending has risen substantially since this government came to power.“To move that amount of money… I don’t think sometimes people quite understand the scale of what that means. That is not something you just pull out the hat one day, but you put it out in a proper process.“I don’t accept any kicking the can down the road, and money has been put into this as a priority at a time when there were lots of other demanding things and lots of things that the British public wants to see.”The PM and the chancellor have both declined to commit the UK to spend 3% of GDP on defence by 2030, a target that John Healey – now the chancellor – previously resigned over. September 6, 2026 9:08 amBusiness secretary condemns Reform plans for welfare cuts Business secretary Jonathan Reynolds has condemned Reform UK’s plans to cut the number of people using welfare, calling them “just fantasy”.Business secretary Jonathan Reynolds has said reforming welfare will be “a mission for this government” (Photo: PA)Speaking with Sky News, Reynolds was asked whether the government will set a tangible target to cut the number of people on welfare, as Reform UK has done. “The Reform stuff is just fantasy,” he said.He added, “These guys have no idea what they’re doing or proposing. So no, I don’t think that approach is the right thing.”Reynolds also said that reforming the welfare system “will be a mission for this government”, but has stressed they must reframe the debate.Asked about the rise in people claiming disability welfare payments in the UK, the business secretary told Sky News: “We have a higher amount of people registering themselves for disabilities today than we did as a percentage of the population after we’d fought a major world war.“So, yes, it’s a thing.”But he speaks about his own disabled son and says he is “not someone who is out there to denigrate people”. September 6, 2026 8:45 amCabinet minister condemns Dover protest A Cabinet minister has condemned the blocking of Dover roads by masked and black-clad anti-illegal migrant protesters.Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds told Sky News’ Sunday Morning programme: “I condemn it. I mean, peaceful protest – essential part of British life, but that’s not dressing up in costumes like this and disrupting people’s lives.“So I would condemn it, but I’d condemn the disruption it caused for local people as well.“But it was resolved, it was resolved. But clearly, that’s not something we would want or expect to see on the (streets) of Britain.”He declined to comment “on the security and policing side of it” when pressed on the apparent unpreparedness of the police, adding that “on the whole, the police handled it very well”. September 6, 2026 8:30 amWe’ll cut the welfare bill, minister says Business Secretary, Jonathan Reynolds has said he is confident the Government will cut the welfare bill.Speaking on Sunday, Reynolds said he is “very confident” Andy Burnham will reduce the UK’s large welfare bill. He told Sky News: “I feel, if I’m being honest, in the first two years, a lot of that conversation about that piece of legislation was about the saving, what that meant. “Now that budget does need to come down, but you’ve got to give people that positive proposition. So I’m very, very confident.”