A BBC presenter pointed out the flaw in a senior Tory’s argument after he criticised Labour over looming welfare cuts.

Shadow education minister Neil O’Brien was speaking as work and pensions secretary Liz Kendall prepares to unveil plans to slash billions of pounds from the benefits bill.

On BBC Breakfast, presenter Roger Johnson asked O’Brien: “You said back in 2022 benefits were at a record level and something needed to be done. Do you welcome what the government is possibly going to try to reduce spending on benefits?”

The Tory MP said: “I think it’s absolutely essential that the government grips this challenge. The irony is a few months back, the chancellor was saying, when we were suggesting this during the election, ‘oh no you can’t save any money on welfare’. Now she’s the one saying ‘we’ve got to save money on welfare’.

“I’m glad that she’s had this conversion to what we were saying a few months ago.”

But the presenter told him: “In fairness, you had 14 years to try and do it and it still got to record levels.”

O’Brien insisted the Tories did cut the numbers classed as “inactive” by nearly a million, but admitted that after the pandemic it had gone up again.

He added: “We put forward a bunch of proposals in the last parliament, Labour were poo-pooing them and now they’re going to enact them.

“Politics is full of these kinds of ironies, but I hope that they do get on with it because it is a serious problem.”