Engagements

Part of Oral Answers to Questions — Prime Minister – in the House of Commons at 1:49 pm on 14 January 1998.

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Photo of Tony Blair Tony Blair Prime Minister 1:49, 14 January 1998

In the end, we must take these decisions ourselves. I mean by "ourselves" not simply the Government but the politicians in general who are in the House. Of course we should be informed by independent research, and we will be.

As we embark on this process, it is important for us to realise that we must change a welfare system in which spending is increasing ever more and ever more, but poverty is increasing, too. We have 3.5 million households that are workless even though the people in them are not of pensionable age. Three million children grow up in households where no one is working. One million of the poorest pensioners are entitled to income support, but do not get it.

We must change that, but we cannot load it on to an independent commission and say, "Go away and do the thinking for us"; we must do the thinking ourselves. Nevertheless, any changes that are proposed will be changes that are subject to proper consultation.