Evening Briefing · Monday 28 September 2026
Healey Tells Conference: A Job, Not a Benefit Payment
The chancellor told Labour’s conference in Liverpool that cutting welfare spending was “more than an economic must — it’s a moral duty”. “The best thing we can offer a young person is not a benefit payment — it’s a first job with training and a wage,” John Healey said.
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He announced an expansion of a Local Apprenticeships Service for mayors in England, which he said would deliver thousands more apprenticeships. Critics noted the speech gave little sense of how he intends to pay for the prime minister’s wider plans, including an NHS-style care service that Sir Andrew Dilnot warned could take decades and cost a “very substantial” sum.