Kwazi Kwarteng was lost for words on GMB after journalist Ava Santina exposed the hypocrisy and rhetoric used around those receiving public money – notably the Royals:
“These benefit claimants just taking away from the country & going on holiday… hate to see it, don’t you”@AvaSantina on the Royal family. In response Kwasi Kwarteng says he doesn’t know what to say. If it was demonising the poor it’d be a different matter though! #GMB pic.twitter.com/zEMKHibGY9
— Saul Staniforth (@SaulStaniforth) December 23, 2025
One rule for poor people and another for the rich
On Tuesday 23 December, GMB presenters were discussing the Christmas plans of Andrew Windsor and his family:
Beatrice and Eugenie have been invited to join the rest of the royals at Sandringham. They’ve also, you know, according to reports, been invited for the final Christmas at Royal Lodge with Andrew and with Sarah Ferguson as well. And it’s kind of juggling those family dynamics.
And Ava’s going to tell us they’ve had to put up with the hardship of going on a skiing holiday instead.
Santina pointed out the unbearable toll it must be taking on Andrew (and the Royals), and redirected a typical Tory attack line at one of the biggest recipients of taxpayer money:
Well, that must have been exhausting for them. You know, gosh, these benefit claimants just taking away from the country and going on holiday using all our funds. God, I hate to see it, don’t you?
Unable to deny the connection, Kwasi simply chortled his response:
I don’t know what to say.
Clearly Kwarteng hadn’t been given the script for this line of questioning:
Why have Kwasi Kwartang on the programme at all? Woefully bad at his job, and doesn’t even have opinions? https://t.co/Th4vvQcVd2
— The Village Haul (@thevillagehaul) December 23, 2025
Or maybe his lack of response is because Santina is bang on the money:
You don’t know what to say because she’s 100% correct
— Tenesha! (@Teneshashashash) December 23, 2025
They are sitting on a £1.8bn private fortune protected from inheritance tax, while you face record household debt just to keep the heating on this Christmas.
End Royal Excess: Monarchy celebrates, taxpayers pay, country suffers quietly. #AbolishTheMonarchy pic.twitter.com/N1WS95k4E8
— Candice Holmes (@hol40900) December 22, 2025
The Royals: an increasingly stark contrast with working families
The Independent totted up the cost to the taxpayer for the Royals in 2024 and 2025, bringing in all known expenses. Hard working people across the country have provided just shy of £520m to keep a roof over this struggling family’s heads.
Often, this huge expense to the taxpayer is excused due to the alleged income that the Royal Family bring in as a result of tourism. However, this argument is a point for contention amongst critics.
As the Independent reported, whilst it is undisputed that the history and heritage of the monarchy attracts tourism, our dependency for the Royal Family being ‘in post’ is debatable.
As the caller on Jeremy Vine pointed out, the Palace of Versailles sees 20 times more visitors as Buckingham Palace. Even Legoland is a more popular destination in Windsor than Windsor Castle itself.
The article also highlights how the Royal Family have been plagued time and time again by scandal and crisis. As a result, the likelihood that anyone would even see a Royal (that they recognise) in person is next to none existent. The realities around the monarchy and the state of our public finances leaves the justifications for their continued privilege on shaky ground.
In order to get your tax payer benefits, you got to do work in the community, that’s what Politicians tell us #r4today pic.twitter.com/pk3guVqO12
— Poptunes (@Catofbengals) December 22, 2025
GB News calls for “sympathy” as Andrew’s guns are seized. Where is the sympathy for the 382k homeless this Christmas?
While Andrew hides in his estate, the King takes a £45.8m pay rise. We don’t need sympathy for a disgraced prince we need an end to the £1.3bn tax-free hoard. pic.twitter.com/LZetcrWOZW— Candice Holmes (@hol40900) December 23, 2025
The *Joseph Rowntree Foundation*draw focus to the highest percentage of poverty is seen amongst children in the UK, whilst poverty affecting pensioners and those without children is the lowest. This suggests the cost of raising children in our society has become so unaffordable that families are consistently finding their pockets getting tighter and tighter.
Factoring in the two-child cap, and the fact that many in receipt of benefits are on such low wages that they have to be topped up by the state, it’s clear who the establishment want us to blame for the hefty benefit bill. But supporting families across the country to survive arguably has far more value to the economy than continuously supporting one of the most privileged families in the country.
*Shelter*also have voiced their disgust at the fact that 84,240 families are facing homelessness, with 382,000 people set to spend Christmas day without a safe and secure roof above their head.
This. The phrase in work benefits shouldn’t exist. For the people who keep yelling scroungers: the actual scroungers are employers and corporations. They are the actual recipients of handouts as WE are supplementing the subpar wages they are paying and helping THEM turn a profit. https://t.co/tJ5qtZ8M8s
— Chirpy Chet (@ChirpyChet) November 30, 2025
Who is the priority: Royals or their ‘lowly subjects’?
Often, the media and political pundits try to act as if we are all in the ‘same boat’, but that’s out of touch, at best, when hard working families across the country find life harder year after year. At worst, it’s a reminder that the richest in our society are never going to truly understand what life is like for ordinary people in this country.
Not when the people they associate with have deeper pockets, and murky moral codes to boot.
Featured image via
From Canary via This RSS Feed.