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JCB’s Lord Bamford: You can’t get away with £60k benefit handouts
Billionaire sounds alarm on welfare spending and warns Labour against a lurch to the Left
JCB billionaire Lord Bamford has said the Government “can’t get away with” giving people up to £60,000 a year in benefits, warning that soaring welfare spending risked triggering a “revolt”.
Lord Bamford, who is one of the biggest political donors in the UK, said taxpayers could not be “conned” into believing that huge welfare payouts were sustainable.
The chairman and owner of the construction equipment giant cautioned Labour against lurching further to the Left as a leadership contest looms.
Lord Bamford told The Telegraph: “I don’t think you can get away with people on welfare getting up to £60,000 a year and not working for it.
“I just don’t think you can, in the end. I don’t think you can carry on conning the people for so long.”
He added: “You could end up with a lot of people revolting or giving up entirely, and then what does that do to our economy? The economy really does depend on people working and us producing things.”
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More than 600,000 households received more in benefits than the average worker’s salary of £32,200 last year, analysis published earlier this month revealed, with 16,000 getting more than £60,000.
The Government will spend £333bn on welfare payments this year, according to the Office for Budget Responsibility, more than the £331bn raised in income tax in 2025.
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A man and his JCB...[more]