John Healey: “I was being forced to make decisions that would reduce the readiness of our forces, and I was left with no other option…”

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.

The money New Labour had in the nineties is simply not there now.

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.