The UK has well and truly entered the era of managed decline, says Jacob Rees-Mogg

The old adage goes that you must cut your coat according to your cloth.

But in a United Kingdom where the national debt is the same size as GDP, where the third highest state cost is paying the debt interest – about £100 billion a year, and where the cost of borrowing repeatedly reaches record highs, it is clear that we have no cloth left.

Regrettably, it appears the Labour Party will not implement its plan to freeze the personal independence allowance in nominal terms and will instead increase it in line with inflation, owing to concerns of a backbench rebellion – a move that would prove Labour has lost its nerve on benefits.

Of all the areas of the state, it is welfare that needs the most radical overhaul.

5.5 million people in the United Kingdom are on out of work benefits. In total, welfare currently costs £285.7 billion, and is projected to cost £360 billion by 2028/29.

But it isn’t only unaffordable, it’s actively harming our economy via its incentive trap.

Research from the Centre for Social Justice shows that a full-time minimum wage job pays less than sickness benefits in many cases. If these people were in work, it would help turn around our stagnant economic growth.

It is this system that also encourages mass migration – we are constantly told that we have a labour shortage which must be filled by migrants, but in reality, we have millions of people who are stuck in this trap.

The UK has well and truly entered the era of managed decline and our broken welfare system is one of the causes of this.

If the Labour government wants to show some serious spine on welfare, it can begin with this: according to new analysis, one million foreign born people are claiming benefits in the UK.

This is an affront to the fabric of our society and forces us to once again ask the question, what is the point of migration? It is meant to make our country wealthier. And here is more clear evidence it is making us poorer.

These people are costing you £7.5 billion a year – the equivalent of the money raised by inheritance tax, the winter fuel allowance three and a half times over or the money raised by Labour’s attack on farmers 14 and a half times over.

If we want to be a serious country and end the era of managed decline and slow motion collapse, we have to bring an end to this system that has made a mockery of the taxpayer for much too long.