Sir Mel Stride will seek to restore the Conservative Party’s reputation for economic responsibility as he sets out plans to slash £47 billion of Government spending.
The shadow chancellor is expected to use his speech to the Tory conference in Manchester on Monday to set out a plan to cut welfare spending, foreign aid and the Civil Service if his party wins the next election.
It follows an opening speech from Kemi Badenoch in which she pledged that “economic responsibility” would “run through this conference like the words in a stick of Blackpool rock” in an attempt to distance the Conservatives from ex-prime minister Liz Truss’s disastrous mini-budget which spooked financial markets.
Sir Mel is expected to say: “We’re the only party that gets it. The only party that will stand up for fiscal responsibility.
“We must get on top of government spending. We cannot deliver stability unless we live within our means.”
Opposition parties claimed the Conservatives wanted to “rehash failed promises”, while the Institute for Economic Affairs think tank said the proposals ignored the “elephant in the room” of rising spending on older people.
Among the plans to be announced on Monday is a £23 billion cut to the welfare bill, replacing payments to people with “low level” mental health conditions with treatment and barring non-citizens from claiming support.
Sir Mel is expected to say: “A fairer system also means ensuring that only British citizens can access welfare – because citizenship should mean something.”
If implemented today, the policy would prevent around 470,000 people — about 6% of the UK’s eight million universal credit claimants — from receiving the benefit.
The same restrictions would apply to disability benefits and the carer’s allowance, though access to pensions and public services would remain unchanged.
EU citizens with settled status under the Brexit agreement with Brussels would be exempt.
The savings would go towards a £2.8 billion plan to give young people a “first-job bonus”.
Those starting their first full-time position would receive a £5,000 national insurance rebate to put towards buying a home, Sir Mel will announce.
The money would be diverted into a long-term savings account and could be used towards a first property – the typical price of which is now £237,600, according to a Halifax report last month.
The Tory politician will say: “When we deliver the urgent change that is needed to stop young people going straight from school to a life on benefits, we will use those reforms to fund tax cuts which are laser-focused on aspiring young people.
“Helping people to buy a home, build a family, save for the future. That is the Conservative dream.”
Sir Mel will also commit his party to reversing any change to the two-child benefit cap, widely expected to be in line for abolition at next month’s Budget.
He will pledge to cut Civil Service numbers by around a quarter, saving £8 billion, and reducing aid spending by £7 billion to 0.1% of national income.
Under David Cameron, the Tories introduced a target of spending 0.7% of national income on overseas aid, which was reduced to 0.5% after the pandemic and then cut again by the current Labour Government to 0.3% to pay for greater defence spending.
Proposals for a further cut have been criticised by Bond, a group of UK development organisations, whose chief executive Romilly Greenhill said they were “reckless, short-sighted and morally indefensible”.
The Conservatives will also pledge to reduce spending on social housing, arguing there will be less demand for it once non-citizens are barred from receiving council accommodation.
Having vowed to repeal the Climate Change Act, Sir Mel will also set out plans to reduce green spending, including subsidies for heat pumps and electric vehicles.
Shadow energy secretary Claire Coutinho will detail the party’s net zero plans on Monday.
It comes after former prime minister Boris Johnson said he went “far too fast” on cutting greenhouse gases to zero when he was in office, but warned against “junking net zero altogether”.
Labour Party chairwoman Anna Turley said: “The Tories let welfare bills, civil service numbers and asylum hotel use skyrocket on their watch – and they’ve never apologised. Now they want to rehash failed promises from their failed manifesto to try to solve the problems they caused.”
Liberal Democrat Treasury spokeswoman Daisy Cooper said the proposals showed the Conservatives had “learnt absolutely nothing from their disastrous handling of the economy” and showed “Trussonomics is still in full swing”.
