Helen Whately
Conservative MP and shadow work and pensions secretary.
Helen Whately, the shadow work and pensions secretary, put the Conservatives' planned welfare savings at £23bn and "just the start" at the party's Birmingham conference in September 2026, The Spectator reported.
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Helen Whately is the Conservative MP for Faversham and Mid Kent and has held the seat without a break since 7 May 2015. She became Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions on 5 November 2024, after a spell as shadow transport secretary from July 2024, according to the UK Parliament.
Her ministerial career ran through the Treasury and health. She was Exchequer Secretary at HM Treasury from September 2021 to July 2022, and a Minister of State at the Department of Health and Social Care from 2020 to 2021 and again from October 2022 to July 2024.
Since November 2024 welfare has been her brief. At the Conservative conference in Birmingham in September 2026 she said the party's welfare savings of £23bn were "just the start", the Spectator reported. The Conservatives keep the pensions triple lock and aim their savings at working-age welfare, and leader Kemi Badenoch proposed raising defence spending to 3% of GDP, funded from welfare.
