Tories plan sweeping cuts beyond £47bn pledge, leaked shadow chancellor comments reveal

Andrew Griffith, then the Conservatives' shadow business secretary, sat down with party members last October and laid out a calculation that has now become public: the £47 billion in cuts his party had already promised would not be enough. Speaking in a room full of Conservative activists, he explained that he and his fellow shadow cabinet ministers had been discussing where else the knife would need to fall. "We will need to go further," he said, describing cuts that would reach into "every part of government."

Those comments, which have only now surfaced, arrive at a moment of particular significance for the Conservative Party. Kemi Badenoch, who leads the party and has made Griffith her shadow chancellor, is preparing to address the party faithful at their annual conference in Birmingham. The leaked remarks suggest that what the Conservatives are contemplating—if they win power—would resemble the austerity programs of the 2010s in both scope and severity, even as the party presents itself as the alternative to Labour's expansionist vision.

The arithmetic of Conservative cuts is already substantial on paper. The party has committed to finding £47 billion in savings, with the bulk coming from welfare restrictions targeting non-British and non-EU citizens. An additional £8 billion would come from eliminating 132,000 civil service positions. The party plans to scrap most of Labour's clean energy initiatives for £1.6 billion and cut international aid by more than £7 billion. On Friday, Badenoch added another layer, announcing a further £4 billion in reductions. That includes another £2.5 billion from the aid budget—leaving it at just £1 billion annually—and £1 billion from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. She has committed to using half of any savings to reduce the deficit and half to fund other priorities, including 50,000 additional prison places.

Griffith's October comments suggest this is not the final accounting. His language—that the shadow cabinet had discussed going further, that he knew "there are areas that we can make savings" in his own department—indicates the party is still identifying targets. The deteriorating economy and the Conservative commitment to cutting taxes, he explained, meant additional reductions would be necessary. "There is a moral mission to get our economy growing, give people opportunity, as well as let people keep more of what they earn," he said, framing the cuts not as painful necessity but as ideological purpose.

When asked about Griffith's remarks, a Conservative Party spokesperson did not deny the substance. Instead, the party doubled down. Under Badenoch's leadership, the statement said, the Conservatives have "consistently advocated for a smaller state and a government that does fewer things but better." The party promised to "go further" in Birmingham, targeting what it called Labour's "bloated welfare bill" and "wasteful spending." Badenoch herself has cited Margaret Thatcher as her hero and has criticized Prime Minister Andy Burnham's plans for public ownership of utilities and a new national care service, calling them misguided.

The contrast between the two parties' visions has sharpened considerably. Burnham, who leads the governing Labour Party, has promised what he describes as an end to "40 years of neoliberalism," proposing expensive new programs and greater state involvement in essential services. Badenoch is positioning the Conservatives as the party of smaller government, lower taxes, and reduced state spending. The leaked comments from Griffith suggest that the gap between these two visions is wider than the public numbers alone would indicate—that the Conservatives are still calculating where the cuts might go, still identifying departments and programs that could be reduced or eliminated.

Griffith himself has a history with austerity. In government, he worked in the Treasury under Kwasi Kwarteng and was tasked with defending the mini-budget that triggered market turmoil in 2022. His promotion to shadow chancellor in August signals Badenoch's confidence in his ability to manage the party's fiscal messaging as it heads toward the next election. The Conservatives currently sit in third place in polling, behind both Labour and Reform UK, though Badenoch's personal approval ratings have improved over the past year. Whether the party can translate its spending-cut message into electoral gains remains an open question—but the leaked comments make clear that the cuts already announced are only the beginning of what the party is considering.