𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

Yesterday, as the Labour Party faithful gathered in Liverpool to begin their festival of socialism, observers might have seen the Chancellor, John Healey, claim to discover a new “moral duty”. Last time he found a moral duty, he resigned as Defence Secretary, warning that Labour’s plans could make the country less safe.

The nation eagerly awaited him, bringing forward a plan to properly fund our defence as Chancellor. I found that funding in my very first week as Shadow Chancellor. However, it appears that despite now holding the purse strings, he has shelved the very 3% target he quit over. That is “Hot Air Healey” all over.

This time, the Chancellor told a Sunday newspaper that he has a moral duty to all of the young people out of work. He is right: the nearly 1 million young people not in education, employment, or training deserve far better than to be written off.

But he was in the Labour Cabinet that raised a £25 billion tax on jobs, and Labour that passed the 330-page, ‘back to the 1970s’ Unemployment Act.

Where was that moral duty then? Now, Healey’s solution is to spend some of the taxes that killed those real jobs, trying to create temporary state-funded ones. It’s completely backward.

Labour broke the jobs market and is now sending taxpayers the bill to fix it. Young people want the dignity of real jobs with a future, not six months on the state payroll.

The Conservatives would scrap Labour’s Unemployment Act and cut the red tape and taxes holding employers back, so businesses can start hiring again.

Because we know that it’s only businesses that create real jobs, not government. And for those who can work but choose not to, we will cut back on welfare to restore fairness to Britain.

With those and other changes, we can finally fund the 3% of GDP defence spending which our country desperately needs to protect itself from a dangerous world — be it Putin, Iran, or others who wish us harm.

Before my business career, I attended my local comprehensive school in south-east London and was the first in my family to go to university.

This was at a time when hard work was rewarded, young people had real chances, and nobody could rely on being handed an easy life at the taxpayers’ expense.

As Labour gathers for its conference this week, it’s worth remembering what its own Welfare Secretary, Pat McFadden, said in text messages with Peter Mandelson: “Every meeting I have is: ‘Who can we tax in order to pay benefits to others?’”

These people still don’t get it, and those who work hard will continue to be hit harder until they do.

Welfare should be a safety net for people who genuinely need it, not a lifestyle choice for people who cannot be bothered; when Labour realises that, we can start to build a stronger economy, rather than one that treats taxpayers as a never-ending cash machine.