{"id":790918,"date":"2026-10-03T18:16:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-03T18:16:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/790918\/"},"modified":"2026-10-03T18:16:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-03T18:16:10","slug":"tories-plan-to-extend-cuts-beyond-47bn-previously-pledged-leak-reveals-conservatives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/790918\/","title":{"rendered":"Tories plan to extend cuts beyond \u00a347bn previously pledged, leak reveals | Conservatives"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Conservatives are planning to make sweeping cuts beyond the \u00a347bn announced last year<\/a> if they win the next election, according to leaked comments by the shadow chancellor.<\/p>\n

Speaking last year when he was shadow business secretary, Andrew Griffith told Conservative members he and fellow shadow cabinet ministers had discussed making further cuts in \u201cevery part of government\u201d.<\/p>\n

The comments, which have emerged on the eve of the Tory party conference in Birmingham, suggested that the Conservatives<\/a> are planning to make cuts similar in scale to those made during the austerity years should they take power.<\/p>\n

Last October, Griffith said: \u201cThere are decisions made and signed up to by everybody to deliver that \u00a347bn. Last week at the shadow cabinet, we talked about [how] we will need to go further.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe rate at which the economy is deteriorating, as well as our ambition to cut more taxes, means that we will have to find further savings, and I\u2019m up for that in my department. I know there are areas that we can make savings, and that\u2019s true of every every part of government.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cThere is a moral mission to get our economy growing, give people opportunity, as well as let people keep more of what they earn. It\u2019s pretty simple. We\u2019re Conservative, this is what we stand for.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Tory spokesperson acknowledged the party was seeking to make cuts beyond what it had already announced.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnder Kemi Badenoch\u2019s leadership, the Conservatives have consistently advocated for a smaller state and a government that does fewer things but better,\u201d the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Birmingham<\/a>, we will go further, setting out further savings to Labour\u2019s bloated welfare bill and cracking down on wasteful spending as part of our plans to build a stronger economy and a stronger country.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kemi Badenoch has previously outlined how the government would cut government spending<\/a> by \u00a347bn, mainly by cutting welfare spending for all non-British or EU citizens.<\/p>\n

The plans would also save \u00a38bn by cutting 132,000 civil service jobs, another \u00a31.6bn by scrapping almost all of Labour\u2019s clean energy scheme and more than \u00a37bn by cutting international aid.<\/p>\n

In August she promoted Griffith, who previously worked as chief operating officer for Sky, from his role as shadow business secretary.<\/p>\n

In government, Griffith worked in the Treasury under Kwasi Kwarteng and was one of the ministers tasked with defending the mini-budget even as the markets tanked in response.<\/p>\n

On Friday Badenoch promised another \u00a34bn of spending reductions, including taking another \u00a32.5bn out of the aid budget \u2013 leaving it with just \u00a31bn as year \u2013 as well as reducing the budget of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport by \u00a31bn.<\/p>\n

The Tory leader said she would use half of those savings to pay for an additional 50,000 prison places. She has previously promised to use half of any cuts she makes to reduce the deficit.<\/p>\n

Griffiths\u2019 leaked comments come as the Tories prepare to gather in Birmingham for their annual conference, with Badenoch seeking to make a virtue of the growing distance between Labour\u2019s plans for government and her own.<\/p>\n

The prime minister, Andy Burnham, has promised a series of potentially expensive interventions, including a new national care service and public control over utility companies, as he seeks to end what he calls \u201c40 years of neoliberalism\u201d.<\/p>\n

However, Badenoch, who has called Margaret Thatcher<\/a> her hero, is attempting to gain an electoral advantage with her vision of lower taxes and a significantly smaller state.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Thatcher] is somebody who brought a lot of wealth and prosperity to this country,\u201d the Tory leader told ITV Meridian on Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cPrivatisation was a success \u2026 I don\u2019t think that Andy Burnham running the water companies is the answer to those problems.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Tories remain in third place in the polls, behind Labour and Reform UK, although Badenoch\u2019s personal ratings have rallied over the last 12 months.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Conservatives are planning to make sweeping cuts beyond the \u00a347bn announced last year if they win the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":790919,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-790918","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/790918","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=790918"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/790918\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/790919"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=790918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=790918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=790918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}