It’s crucial that No10 cures the sickness at the heart of our economy

Dole scandal

IT’S crucial that No10 cures the sickness at the heart of our economy.

Scandalously, 5.2million Brits are on out-of-work benefits while we have one million-plus job vacancies and rely on ­adding 500,000 immigrants a year to our population to keep ticking over.

Brexit was meant to cut our reliance on cheap foreign workers, letting us train more of our own and raise wages.

In some roles it has worked. Far more Brits now drive trucks, for example, and earn more. But, whatever Remainers claim, Brexit has NOT cut immigration and caused staff shortages. Far from it.

The real problem is that vast numbers are neither in a job nor looking for one — a figure which exploded during Covid when certain rules on claiming handouts were relaxed.

Many people have legitimate physical or mental health conditions preventing them from working.

They may be stuck on an NHS waiting list. But in certain areas a quarter of the potential workforce is on out-of-work benefits.

Some are clearly choosing to live off the taxpayer, as so many did under Labour.

David Cameron fixed that national crisis by ensuring work paid more than the dole. It proved life-changing for many and created a jobs boom even in the grim aftermath of the global crash.

Rishi Sunak admits this has once again become a “drag on growth”.

Worse than that, it is a waste of talent and of life.

The Tory jobs miracle of a decade ago must be repeated.

Fix this urgently, PM.

Holy wrong

HOW tedious to hear the Archbishop of Canterbury parrot the Left’s usual facile complaints about the small boats scandal.

Justin Welby claims the Tories’ new Bill is “morally unacceptable” and will harm our global reputation over refugees.

Rubbish. British attitudes to genuine refugees and legal migrants have made us about the most welcoming country on Earth. Surveys repeatedly prove it.

But the public, overwhelmingly, IS sick of boatloads of healthy economic migrants — fleeing nothing and having paid traffickers thousands — landing illegally to begin new lives unimpeded.

The Archbishop dislikes “short-term” fixes. He wants to solve climate change and war. Fine. Except voters want the boats stopped NOW, not in a generation.

What a pity he never has to listen to them.

Farce force

AN infamous unsolved axe murder. Five Met Police probes. A major inquiry which accused the force of “institutional corruption” and blasted then boss Cressida Dick.

And for nine years 95 pages of confidential and relevant documents were lying hidden in a locked safe at Scotland Yard, the key long ago mislaid.

Yesterday we branded the London force a shambles. That looks increasingly generous.