Mainstream media rags pit working people against benefit claimants after budget

It was, of course, budget day yesterday. During this annual farce Rachel Reeves announced that, among other things, the two-child cap would be lifted and that taxes would once again rise. These two things are not related, because more than anything, the amount disabled people will lose from benefits cuts and losing our cars will offset the measly extra 17 quid a week parents get per child.

However, that didn’t stop the corporate media rags from once again blaming poor people on benefits and pitting them against “hardworking” people:

🚨 NEW: The front pages of tomorrow's papers on Rachel Reeves' Budget pic.twitter.com/Ucytpzhyj0

— Politics UK (@PolitlcsUK) November 26, 2025

Return to vile Benefits Street narrative via budget

There are a couple of themes emerging with the headlines today, which really just show how much the worst right-wing rags are controlling this benefits hate narrative. The first is outright calling people all benefit fraudsters, living the life of luxury.

The Sun called it:

The Benefits Street budget.

While The Daily Express expanded slightly:

A budget for Benefit Street paid for by working people.

The Daily Mail, however, really committed. They might as well have gone full Nazi “They’re coming to steal your hard-earned pay for the useless eaters”. It’s front page read”

With a smirk that says if you work hard and save prudently, I’m coming for you, Reeves launches Spiteful raid on strivers – to lavish billions on Benefits Street.

It’s clear what the intention of the Mail, along with the Sun and Express, really is. It’d be simplistic to say they all lack imagination, when they’re probably more than aware that invoking Benefit’s Street will make readers see those who need child benefits as “scroungers” who don’t want to work.

This also ignores how much damage Benefits Street did to people from working-class backgrounds who need benefits to survive. In 2019, residents told the Teeside Gazette that it “tore the estate apart” and tarred anyone in similar situations with the same brush. At an event in July, Joy Dove, mother of Jodey Whiting, who took her own life after being found fit for work, spoke about how the media had smeared Jodey. They labelled her a single mother scrounging benefits and equated her to those seen on Benefits Street.

Blaming poor people for tax rises, again

Instead of just calling benefit claimants scroungers, some papers directly linked it to tax rises to really pit working-class people against each other

The i Paper said:

Spend now: pay later: £26bn in tax rises to boost benefits and tackle UK black hole.

While our paper of record, The Times, simply went with:

High welfare, high tax.

It was the Metro who was perhaps the bluntest, though:

Budget goes as billed, you’re paying.

Headlines such as these are deliberate attempts to cause division within the working class. Pitting neighbours against each other and stoking the fires to hate those who need the most support. These papers couldn’t give a fuck that families on benefits are struggling to feed their kids or stay alive. All they care about is that papers are being bought and articles are being clicked by those filled with venom.

British media owned by billionaires, making poor people the enemy

Many will be wondering why the Metro, a supposedly politically neutral paper, is taking this stance. But it’s worth remembering that Metro is owned by DMG, a subsidiary of The Daily Mail. They also own The i Paper – which again claims to be neutral. They can claim that all they want, but that doesn’t stop their headlines from being clearly designed to cause division. It’s no coincidence that the Metro’s will be the front page commuters in low paid jobs are most likely to see today, what with it being free on buses and at train stations.

It’s not just DMG to blame, though. The Sun and Times are owned by Murdoch’s News UK, and the Express by Reach PLC, who control most local news. These three companies own 90% of print media in the UK, which is exactly why it’s been so easy to push the scrounger narrative. It’s also interesting that the Times, Sun, Express, Mail and Metro have today printed double-paged ads from Reform UK, which the party paid them £700,0000 for.

Reeves might’ve thrown benefits claimants under the bus with the budget, but the corporate media rags are backing up to make sure they get dragged under the tyres. And when the media is owned by billionaires and millionaires, they’d much rather we were all fighting among ourselves than looking up at who was doing the real damage.

Featured image via X/Politics UK