John Healey: “The rock of fiscal discipline. It underwrites every promise this government makes … we can’t succeed without it.”

Our social security system must always be there for those who can never work. But for everyone else, benefits should be a bridge to work, to wider participation, to a better life, not a trap that people can’t escape.

We have to bring the benefits bill down.

It is not progressive to allow a bigger and bigger benefits bill, and a system which offers an income but doesn't offer a future.

Britain has it harder now. We had 13 years of flatlining tory growth in living standards when Cameron’s austerity gutted our public services, when Johnson’s Brexit hammered our exports and Truss’s mini budget crashed our economy.