Top Tory says his party was ‘too soft’ on Brits in government
The Conservatives were “too soft” when they were in power, the party’s chairman Kevin Hollinrake has said, as he alluded to the Tory record on welfare spending.
Speaking to Times Radio, Mr Hollinrake said: “I think we did many good things in 14 years, but if I look at the things we got wrong, I think we have been too soft at times.”
He said the party had not shown enough “tough love” or told people they have to be responsible for themselves.
“I think possibly through the Covid process, the cost-of-living issues we had, we threw hundreds of billions of pounds at the economy to try and save jobs and businesses, but we probably went too far.
“I think certainly in terms of the patterns of behaviour around welfare, I think too many people have left their place of work because of things like mild anxiety and depression, if you’ve got those kind of conditions, of course you need support, but the best place for you is work.”