“Superb journalism… leading the national conversation,” posted Spectator editor Baron Gove of Torry in the City of Aberdeen this weekend, trumpeting his economics editor Michael Simmons scoop about poor people being allowed to see national attractions for less.
Despite it “leading the national conversation”, you may have missed Simmons’s story, revealing that families on benefits are being given access to London attractions for considerably less than those in work, allowing poorer people and their children to see the capital’s historic cultural treasures.
Under the headline ‘Benefits treats: how Britain became a freeloader’s paradise’, Simmons fumed at offers which allowed families of benefits claimants to access the Tower of London for just £4 (an offer taken up by 106,000 people, or 3.8 per cent of visitors, from April 2025 to March 2026) or £1 to visit St Paul’s Cathedral.
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“We don’t just redistribute more to benefits claimants when crises strike: almost the entire public sector is geared permanently to making welfare an increasingly attractive way of living,” raged Simmons. “Welfare-advice websites are awash with listicles of the top ten days out for those on UC [Universal Credit], with staggering discounts advertised.”
The story was followed up by the Times, which lined up Conservative and Reform MPs to get angry about some of Britain’s poorest children being given the opportunity to immerse themselves in Britain’s cultural and religious heritage, rather than hanging around the streets smoking.
“Taking your children for a day out in London to see the sights has become punishingly expensive. No wonder people are frustrated to see huge discounts offered to households on benefits,” said shadow work and pensions secretary Helen Whately, while Reform’s ridiculously named ‘shadow chancellor’ Robert Jenrick said: “Under a Reform UK government you won’t be able to use benefits to get discounts like this.”
If, though, the Times were hoping to stir up some anti-benefit fervour with the story, they may have been disappointed. Comments under the article – which required three journalists, one more than Watergate – included: “Why are you whipping up hatred against poor people?”; “We are through the looking glass territory here now. Welfare claimants are the new elite”; “I work, have never been on benefits, and think this is absolutely reasonable and proper” and “How are children supposed to have the confidence to fight their way out of poverty when they’re not allowed to have the same cultural experiences as their peers?”
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