Suella Braverman complained that too many people are on benefits but missed a key detail

Suella Braverman missed a key detail while complaining that too many people in the UK are claiming benefits.

Braverman is one of the Tory MPs throwing their hat in the ring to replace Boris Johnson as prime minister, and while others have chosen to focus on tax, the Attorney General seems instead to have turned her attention to the welfare state.

The MP complained that "too many people rely on benefits" and bemoaned a culture of relying on handouts rather than working – while missing the point that many people claiming welfare are in work already.

When asked what a parliament under her rule would look like, she said she’d focus on tackling “multibillion-pound wastage”.

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She told the PA news agency: “In so many areas we are spending too much in an inefficient way… It’s about spending money more smartly and I think we waste too much money.

“I think there are too many people in this country, for example, who are of working age, of good health and who are choosing not to work full time and they are taking benefits.”

He added: “Whilst Universal Credit did a very good amount of work to stamp out that welfare dependency, we still have a stubborn tail of the population that refuses to enter into economic activity.

“I think we have to introduce much more rigour and incentive to get people into work.”

As Peter Stefanovic pointed out when reacting to the comments, 40 per cent of people on Universal credit are in work, while 50 per cent of people in poverty are in a working family.

Braverman pledged to remove VAT from energy bills and reduce corporation tax to attract investment, as well as pledging to take the UK out of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).

She rejected the suggestion that would put the UK in line with Russia, saying: “No, it would put us in line with countries like New Zealand and Canada and Australia and many other Western democracies who function perfectly well without being members of the European Convention on Human Rights.”

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