YESTERDAY, in a speech in London, Tory leader Kemi Badenoch made an offer to Keir Starmer to work together on a plan to slash spending on welfare and benefits. Badenoch proposed a cross-party committee of Labour ministers and their Tory counterparts to agree plans to make savage austerity cuts ‘in the national interest’. She made this offer for the Tory party to rescue Starmer and his Chancellor Rachel Reeves in the aftermath of the humiliating retreat forced on Starmer’s government by a rebellion of Labour MPs over earlier plans to cut benefits for the disabled. At this point of crisis, Badenoch has stepped in with an offer of what amounts to a coalition with Starmer to force through cuts to the welfare state in the ‘national interest’ of the bosses and bankers. Reeves is preparing for an Autumn Budget in November where she will unveil her plans to make massive cuts to welfare spending while making sure that the wealthy and corporations are not at risk of increased taxation.