Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Stephen Crabb: how my mother inspired my vision of welfare reform

Earlier, I republished my interview with Stephen Crabb, the new Work and Pensions Secretary. He was, then, Wales Secretary – not all of his (many) thoughts on welfare reform made the cut. So I’ve been through the transcript, and posted more of this comments below: they give a better idea of what the new welfare secretary is like.

At the time, benefits had been cut in the post-election Budget. Crabb was a bit nervous, saying-:

‘You have always got to handle the issue of welfare with care because you are dealing with support mechanisms for Britain’s most vulnerable people. That’s what welfare is. You’ve got to take care of the issue. But we should take encouragement from the election result, even in Wales: there is a strong measure of support for the mainstream of British opinion for changes that we want to make and so long as we keep demonstrating that what we are doing is helping to foster the employment growth and the other positive economic changes that welfare reforms. As long as we keep being able to demonstrate that, I think we’ll take public opinion with us.

‘We talk about the remarkable recovery across the UK over the last three or four years and it has been incredible. You don’t get that without having reformed welfare. It is a key part in driving the fall in unemployment, we have to keep articulating that – and we shouldn’t be shy about saying and challenging the other parties.

‘Every party should want to see welfare spending come down. That should be an aspiration for all of us because what you’re saying is we are working towards a society where there are fewer people caught in dependency, fewer people who are out of work and need that intervention from the state. The huge strategic error that Labour made was equating compassion with how high your spending figures were for welfare.’

And Crabb’s backstory – certainly not a stereotypical one – is often talked about as a key advantage for the MP who could have a shot at the Tory leadership one day.

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