Kemi to cease college leavers going straight on the dole: As Burnham lurches additional Left – and talks of a second Brexit referendum – Tories launch bid to cease younger lives being wasted…

School leavers will be banned from going straight on to the dole under Tory plans to ‘put the fair back in welfare’.

Kemi Badenoch has drawn up proposals to require jobless teenagers to undergo intensive work coaching instead of signing on immediately for Universal Credit.

In an interview with The Spectator magazine, Mrs Badenoch said it was time for a ‘tough-love’ approach towards a benefits system that was ‘unfair to the people who get up and go to work’.

The Tory leader also rounded on Andy Burnham, who made only a passing reference to the runaway welfare system in his conference speech this week. She accused the Prime Minister of offering ‘Corbynism with better packaging’ with Left-wing solutions from the 1970s ‘that will fail again’.

She added: ‘They are the welfare party. It’s in their DNA. They’re not the party of the working classes at all.’

Mrs Badenoch is set to make the need for welfare reform a central feature of next week’s Conservative Party conference in Birmingham. The Tories will unveil a new slogan pledging to ‘Put the fair back in welfare’ as they seek to draw a key election dividing line with Labour. 

Her intervention came as:

• Mr Burnham opened the door to a divisive second referendum on EU membership, saying he was prepared to go ‘all the way’ and rejoin;
• The PM warned that families face a ‘tough winter’ amid predictions the energy price cap could jump by £276 in January;
• Experts said families will continue to face ‘catastrophic’ costs after the PM admitted his new ‘free’ care plan will not cover residential fees;
• Labour MPs warned that the plan to scrap the pension triple lock ‘could be political suicide’;
• Mrs Badenoch criticised Donald Trump, saying his ‘erratic’ behaviour was hurting the world economy;
• It emerged that Chancellor John Healey has warned against scrapping Britain’s first-past-the-post voting system, which Mr Burnham has pledged to do.

Kemi Badenoch has drawn up proposals to require jobless teenagers to undergo intensive work coaching instead of signing on immediately for Universal Credit (file image)

She accused the Prime Minister of offering ‘Corbynism with better packaging’. Andy Burnham is seen here delivering a speech during the Labour Party Annual Conference in Liverpool

The Conservatives have already pledged to cut £23billion from the welfare bill as part of a wider government savings plan of £47billion. They are expected to unveil further reforms next week.

The Mail can reveal the plans will include a new ‘Get To Work’ scheme for out-of-work youngsters.

The Tory proposals would end the right of unemployed school leavers to immediately claim Universal Credit, the main benefit for those out of work. Instead, they will be required to sign up for a programme of intensive job coaching designed to get them into the world of work instead of languishing on the dole.

This could include daily attendance at their local job centre, work experience placements and interview preparation training.

Some may be required to take part in community work schemes such as litter picking if they fail to do enough to look for work. Those involved will also be offered help looking for work and offered training in basic skills sought by employers, such as communication and teamwork.

Those who fail to find or accept work after six months will be placed on a new Subsistence Allowance, paying 70 per cent of the basic Universal Credit rate. Handouts would be paid on to a card that could not be spent on the likes of drinking, smoking or gambling.

Shadow work and pensions secretary Helen Whately said urgent action was needed to tackle a system that had left one million young people not in education, employment or training.

‘The UK Neet rate is worse than Greece’s. Labour have killed 300,000 jobs with their jobs tax and employment red tape and young people have paid the price,’ she said.

‘Too many young people are leaving school and signing straight onto benefits. This is a waste of their potential and a disaster for our economy. Our Get To Work scheme will break this toxic cycle. If you don’t take part, you won’t get welfare.

‘Sometimes, you have to show some tough love.’

Mrs Badenoch also warned that people with ‘low-level’ conditions such as ADHD or anxiety would be expected to work, adding: ‘These are conditions you can work with and so you should be working. We’re not going after the vulnerable. It is the people who can work who aren’t working that are the target.’

Mrs Badenoch also criticised the ‘student union’ politics of Labour’s conference, where Mr Burnham vowed to reverse Thatcherism.

‘It feels very much like student union people who’ve got older but they still want to do the stuff they did in the student union,’ she said.

‘We are now about to have a battle of ideas. It’s given me more confidence that, even in this messy political era, the Conservatives are going to win.’

To read the full Kemi Badenoch interview in The Spectator, visit: https://spectator.com/article/i-get-better-every-day-has-kemi-badenoch-revived-the-tory-party