ITN fails to explain why Channel 5’s Jeremy Vine does not push back on false claims of ‘spiralling welfare’

A third major broadcaster has been unable to provide an explanation for why high-profile presenters are failing to challenge politicians and commentators who repeat the false claim that spending on social security needs to be cut because it is out of control.

Last week, Disability News Service (DNS) challenged BBC News and Sky News over the failure of news presenters to push back on the often-repeated claim that social security spending is out of control and needs to be cut, when in fact it is stable.

This week, DNS has challenged Channel 5, and particularly the failings of its star presenter Jeremy Vine (pictured) and his daytime Jeremy Vine Show.

ITN, which makes the Jeremy Vine Show, said this week that such claims were misleading.

But Vine and his programme have become notorious among disabled people for whipping up hostility towards them, particularly those who receive benefits.

One of the most concerning examples of his failure to challenge false claims about spending on social security came in March 2025, when he told his panel: “… and you’ve got to slash benefits.”

He then said: “You’ve going to have to cut the benefits first and then expect them to get out the front door and work.”

And he told the panel: “There’s something fishy going on… we’ve had a massive increase since Covid, 25 per cent increase, in people who are too ill to work.”

More recently, in May this year, he failed to challenge a guest who claimed the benefits bill was “out of control”.

On another show, last November, he asked bluntly: “Why don’t you cut welfare?”

And in April this year, he told a panellist: “Defence 66 (billion pounds), welfare 334 (billion), the contrast, Carol, is amazing.”

He then told his panellists: “Yesterday I had a message from somebody that said: ‘I’ve only just got my diagnosis for ADHD and got my benefits and why are you always questioning the welfare bill,’ and I had to reply: ‘We haven’t got any money.’”

Another Channel 5 presenter, Matt Allwright, failed to challenge the myth of spiralling social security spending, after a guest panellist said on a show earlier this month: “The country has got no money, and the welfare budget is out of control.”

Instead of questioning that statement, Allwright suggested that he agreed with his panellist, saying: “There was an attempt to recalibrate disability benefits, wasn’t there.

“And the backbenches would not have it… The attempts so far have been fraught by the Labour party to try and get welfare under control.”

After contacting ITN and Channel 5, DNS pointed to Office for Budget Responsibility figures which show that social security spending is not spiralling*.

DNS also suggested that there were good reasons for challenging the specific call for cuts to disability benefits.

It pointed out that there could be several reasons why personal independence payment (PIP) spending has been increasing, including the impact of the pandemic, NHS waiting-lists, and an ageing population; that levels of PIP fraud are tiny; that disabled people are much more likely to be in poverty than non-disabled people, which would worsen if disability benefits were cut; and that cuts to Department for Work and Pensions disability support have been closely associated with countless deaths over the last 16 years, many of them suicides.

ITN declined to produce a statement on the concerns raised by DNS but said they had been passed to its production team.

ITN claimed that discussions about social security reform on the shows reflected a range of views, with contributors who both supported and opposed proposed changes.

And it claimed that the examples highlighted by DNS focused on individual comments taken from wider discussions in which presenters and panellists challenged and debated different perspectives on the issues.

ITN also claimed that it would be misleading to isolate those comments without reflecting the wider discussions in full.

And it said it remained committed to ensuring audiences heard a broad range of views on matters of public debate.

*The proportion of GDP (the size of the country’s economy in a particular year) spent on social security, according to the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR): 2010-11: 12.0%, 2011-12: 12.0%, 2012-13: 12.1%, 2013-14: 11.7%, 2014-15: 11.5%, 2015-16: 11.3%, 2016-17: 10.9%, 2017-18: 10.5%, 2018-19: 10.3%. 2019-20: 10.2%, 2020-21: 11.9%, 2021-22: 10.4%, 2022-23: 10.0%, 2023-24: 10.9%, 2024-25: 10.7%, 2025-26 (latest OBR forecast): 10.9%, 2026-27 (latest OBR forecast): 11.2%, 2027-28 (latest OBR forecast): 11.1%, 2028-29 (latest OBR forecast): 11.0%, 2029-30 (latest OBR forecast): 11.1%, 2030-31 (latest OBR forecast): 11.2% [see chart 5.2, Economic and fiscal outlook – October 2024 and table 4.1, Economic and Fiscal Outlook – March 2026]