Sky News was interrupted for a breaking news announcement as host Trevor Phillips interviewed Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch. Badenoch was being quizzed on her view of defence spending versus disability benefits, with Phillips reading a quote from shadow work and pensions secretary Helen Whately. The segment was accompanied by a breaking news strap across the screen which read: “Breaking News – Badenoch: Every country should control their borders”, and which was later changed to: “Badenoch: Retaliatory tariffs escalate trade war”.

He kicked things off by saying: “Let’s return to the government’s economic steps recently. When the DWP secretary Liz Kendall announced her welfare reforms, Helen Whately responded that she should have gone further. She said, ‘Spending more on sickness benefits than we do on defence is not the sign of a strong country’. This is quite an interesting and definitive position. Would you cut the amount that we pay out on sickness benefits so it’s always lower than the defence budget? Is that a rule of thumb for you?”

Badenoch responded: “I think we need to look at what we are spending on defence first of all, at a time when the world is becoming more dangerous, we need to raise more money and spend more of it on defence. The way we raise the money is by growing the economy.”

She went on to deliver a huge blow to Keir Starmer and his Labour government, citing: “Right now we are in a weakened state because of the decisions Labour has made, making things worse. They do need to tackle welfare spending and this is the point Helen is making. It’s not about whether we should spend more on benefits, we need to make sure we’ve got a strong and healthy population. We should not have so many people off work who are unwell and unable to work that it costs more than we spend on defence, that’s just outrageous.”

Badenoch added: “I don’t think it’s a controversial position. We used to spend a lot more on defence than we did on welfare – you look decades ago when we had an economy where GDP was higher, where inflation was lower, we were not spending this amount on welfare. We need a country where more people are able to work and able to be productive.”

Viewers on X were divided, with one tweeting: “Aye, because clearly more tanks will help those struggling with everyday life better than a bit of support and understanding. Priorities, eh?” Another added: “The UK’s defence spending is already too high, is already one of the highest in the world and should not be increased.”

Somebody else posted: “Badenoch clearly saying that Labour have not gone far enough on welfare cuts and that the country should be spending more on defence than welfare. Here’s a clue – if her party had not destroyed the NHS maybe there would not be so many sick people.”