‘Welfare is his number one priority,’ Kemi Badenoch gives brutal Keir Starmer verdict to GB News

Kemi Badenoch has slammed Keir Starmer, telling GB News the Prime Minister's “number one priority” was welfare spending.

Speaking to Chief Political Correspondent Katherine Forster, the Tory Party leader savaged Labour’s “astonishing” handling of welfare spending.

Mrs Badenoch was addressing the issue after bruising resignations from Defence Secretary John Healey and Armed Forces Minister Al Crans last week.

The pair left the Government in protest at the long-delayed Defence Investment Plan, which they argued did not address Britain’s defence needs.

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Mrs Badenoch said: “If the Labour Defence Secretary says it's not enough and we're not safe, then why should I disagree with him?”

“We've been waiting for this defence investment plan now for two years.

“We're two years behind because Keir Starmer paused the plans that the Conservatives were putting in place when he came in, and said he wanted to have his own review.

“He's had his own review, led by a former Labour Defence Secretary who is also a former Nato Secretary General. And he's not doing what the review asks for.

“Twenty-eight billion pounds is the barest minimum, and the fact that Keir Starmer will not find that money is astonishing,” she slammed.

Addressing Sir Keir directly, the Conservative leader said: “Defence is not his number one priority. Welfare is his number one priority.

“They're not the Labour Party anymore. They are the Welfare Party.

“I'm trying to show that there is a different way. Let's bring the welfare bill down. Let's get people into work. Put that money into defence.”

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However, Mrs Badenoch accepted that “successive Governments of all colours, Labour, Liberal Democrats and Conservative” had underinvested in the Armed Forces.

“Defence spending started going down in 1989, when I was nine years old. We need to start thinking about what we are going to do now.

“We all thought that we were living in an era of peace. It is quite clear that that era is over. The peace dividend from the Cold War has been spent.

“It is good that Keir Starmer wants to increase defence spending, but it is not enough to talk about it.

“He actually has to do it, and he has to put enough into it.

“It's no good putting in an amount that even his own people, his own ministers say, this is so bad we're resigning.

“If the Labour defence ministers won't support the Labour Government, then nobody else should,” Mrs Badenoch said.

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