Benefits and PIP cuts – live: Minister insists cabinet is ‘united’ as Labour set to slash billions from welfare bill

Kemi Badenoch toed a careful line in her criticism of net zero today. On the one hand, she is attempting to appeal to Reform voters who are anxious about the rising cost of energy and have been taken in by Nigel Farage’s promise to ditch net zero entirely.

But on the other hand – her insistence that she is not sceptical of the existence of climate change makes clear she is still trying to maintain appearances as a party guided by science.

The challenge facing the Tory leader is an attempt to retain traditional Conservative voters who would likely be turned off by outright climate denial – whilst also attempting to win over Reform voters who are sceptical of net zero targets.

DWP secretary Liz Kendall is expected to announce welfare reforms amounting to £6 billion in cuts later today. The bulk of these are expected to fall on health and disability-related benefit spending as Labour looks to bring down the rising cost of providing this support.

Analysis by The Joseph Rowntree Foundation has found that, if this full amount in cuts were to go ahead, it would be the biggest cut to disability benefits since the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) was created in 2010.

Peter Matejic, chief analyst at the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, added: “If the government cuts benefits, this will only serve to deepen hardship. As we’ve demonstrated, cuts on this scale would be unprecedented. It is no answer to the nation’s health or employment prospects.

“If a disabled person needs financial support to be able to live and work, taking that support away or freezing it risks pushing them further away from a job. It is an unethical and short-sighted approach.”

The proportion of personal independence payments claimants in England and Wales who are under the age of 30 has increased in recent years, from 14.5 per cent of the total in January 2020 to 16.4 per cent in January 2025.

People aged 30-44 made up 18.8 per cent of the total in January 2020 and 20.9 per cent in January 2025.

By contrast, the proportion of claimants who are aged 45-59 has fallen from 36.3 per cent in January 2020 to 30.1 per cent in January 2025, while the figure for 60 to 74-year-olds is broadly unchanged, rising very slightly from 30.5 per cent to 30.9 per cent.

Kemi Badenoch said she is not going to “rush out” and set a target to reach net zero.

“Why is it 2050 in the first place? No-one knows,” she said.

She said the Conservatives would come out with new policies at some point which could focus on a better way of delivering net zero or just focusing on clean energy and energy security.

She said she has not changed her mind after showing support for the net zero by 2050 target in government.

“I haven’t changed my mind. What you are describing is collective responsibility.”

The most common disabling conditions among the 3.66 million claimants in England and Wales entitled to personal independence payments as of 31 January 2025 were psychiatric disorders (1.40 million claimants); general musculoskeletal disease (691,000), neurological disease (467,000) and specific musculoskeletal disease (437,000).

Disabling conditions involving psychiatric disorders accounted for 38.4% of claimants in January 2025, up from 35.0 per cent five years earlier in January 2020, while general musculoskeletal disease accounted for 18.9 per cent, down from 20.6 per cent, and neurological disease accounted for 12.8 per cent, down from 14.4 per cent.

The Tory leader has insisted she is not denying the existence of the climate crisis, instead arguing she is sceptical of net zero because of “muddled plans, unrealistic targets” and an “over reliance on China”.

Arguing that reaching net zero by 2050 is impossible, she claimed that the emissions target “makes us dangerously dependent on countries who don’t share our values and it is risking our energy security”.

“It is time to stop pretending everything will be fine”, she said.

Mrs Badenoch added: “I’m certainly not debating whether climate change exists – it does. I badly want to leave a much better environmental inheritance for my children and yours.”

The Tory leader said that 17m houses will need heat pumps in 15 years.

Yet at the moment the highest number fitted a year has been 50,000. This means, she says, that it would take a total of 340 years.

Kemi Badenoch has taken aim at government efforts to cut emissions, saying they are failing to “safeguard the delicate balance of nature for future generations”.

She said that keeping energy costs down and reducing our impact on the environment are “both noble aims”, but said the current policies of the government are not working.

“Tories like Margaret Thatcher have always been custodians of the environment”, she said.

“It is our duty to safeguard the delicate balance of nature for future generations. But the current policies the government have implemented are not doing this, while driving up the cost of energy”.

Kemi Badenoch is giving a speech in Kings Cross in which she warns that net zero by 2050 is “impossible”.But she is already facing criticism that she herself did not vote against the plan in the House of Commons.

In a bid to deal with that attack – she has quoted herself in this speech, and she even putting her words up on a big screen.

This shows that at the time ahead asked how the plan would be “achievable and affordable”. It’s unlikely, however, to stop the naysayers who will ask if this is how she feels why she did not ring the alarm louder and sooner.