DAILY MAIL COMMENT: Will you EVER grasp the nettle on welfare crisis, Prime Minister?

Full credit to Andy Burnham for keeping a straight face yesterday as he claimed to be working ‘flat out’ to reduce the benefits bill. Even Labour diehards must realise that nothing could be further from the truth. If it wasn’t clear before this week’s Budget, it is now glaringly obvious that neither the Prime Minister nor John Healey has the resolve to grasp the welfare nettle. Yet, presumably rattled by the almost universally negative reaction to the Chancellor’s failure to announce any cuts, both men were quick to make soothing noises.

Unfortunately for them, on the very same day Downing Street and the Treasury slapped down any prospect of remedial measures before the next election. Nor was there much cause for cheer as further details emerged from the post-Budget analysis. The Left-leaning Resolution Foundation estimates that households will be more than £1,000 worse off in the next two years. It also described the £100 cut to energy charges - which will be eaten up by average bill increases of almost £300 in January - as ‘terribly badly targeted’.

According to an Institute for Fiscal Studies warning, the Government could be forced to fill a £28billion hole in the public finances by 2030 . Its director Helen Miller said she is ‘no wiser’ about how the Chancellor expects to reach the defence spending target of 3 per cent of GDP by 2030. Full credit to Andy Burnham for keeping a straight face yesterday as he claimed to be working ‘flat out’ to reduce the benefits bill Regardless of what Messrs Burnham and Healey say, it is looking increasingly unlikely that any shortfall will be made up in even the medium term through welfare reform.

They have already insulted hard-working Britons by ignoring the Benefits Street culture. Now they are insulting our intelligence by pretending to be as concerned about it as the rest of us. Freedom fiasco It hardly takes a clairvoyant to work out that releasing prisoners early will result in an increase in crime statistics. Official figures now back up what anyone could have told Labour more than two years ago. Following the introduction of the Government’s first early-release scheme in September 2024, 46,459 new offences were committed by individuals freed from jail between October and December that year.

The total was up from 34,866 crimes during the same quarter in 2023. To no one’s great surprise, initial signs from the new early-release programme - which came into effect earlier this month and is expected to free 50,000 felons per year - strongly suggest similar patterns of reoffending. Throwing open jail doors is not the answer to overcrowding in the penal system. The best way to tackle the crime epidemic is by providing enough custodial places to guarantee all sentences are served in full.

As Shadow Justice Secretary Nick Timothy has put it: ‘Prison works.’ Stifled speech As the latest phase of Angela Rayner’s hardline Employment Rights Act comes into effect, the so-called ‘banter ban’ applies in workplaces from today. Under its provisions, employers will be expected to police comments that could offend staff. Those expected to be most affected include pub landlords ensuring customers don’t upset bartenders or fellow drinkers with inappropriate remarks.

With that in mind, anyone heading for a pint to escape the post-Budget blues should watch their tongue. But they might want to hurry while there are still some pubs left that haven’t succumbed to Labour’s onslaught on the hospitality industry …