Yvette Cooper says she won’t buy into the Tories’ negative rhetoric on welfare

Yvette Cooper will today say that she will never “never slag off people on benefits because they cant work as “work shy” or “scroungers”.

Speaking at the leadership hustings taking place at Fabian Conference, she will argue that putting a limit on welfare and caps on benefits is the right thing to do. However, she will pinpoint problems with the government’s plan to reduce the benefit cap from £26,000 to £23,000 a year.

Cooper, one of the people in the running to be Labour’s next leader, will argue that often a large proportion of the money people receive in benefits go to landlords not to families.

She will also point out that a quarter of families on benefits are unable to get a job because they are on sickness benefit. Cooper will argue that serious amendments are needed to the Tories’ plan.

Cooper will reiterate her belief that Labour shouldn’t swallow the Tories’ manifesto just because they lost the election. Her conclusion will be that there should be clear rules around work and welfare but that Labour “should not sign up lock stock and barrel to Ian Duncan Smith’s plans”.

Cooper will say:

People should be working if they can. I’ve always worked long hours and always believed it was right to work hard and support your family. But I did have 12 months twenty years ago when I was too ill to work. I hated it and I was desperate to get back to work, but I couldn’t. And I had to get sickness benefit and housing benefit to pay the bills and pay the rent. So I will always support strong rules on contribution, on expecting people to work, including compulsory jobs. But I will never slag off people on benefits because they cant work as “work shy” or “scroungers”. That’s what Tories do. Not Labour.