Nasty McVey suggests her own party’s benefit cuts are “fake news” in shameless conference speech!

The Work and Pensions Secretary launched her attack despite cuts being well-documented by experts and her predecessor Iain Duncan Smith.

BRAZEN Esther McVey caused uproar after she claimed that benefit cuts were “fake news” during a hysterical attack on the left.

The Work and Pensions Secretary used her keynote address at the Conservative Party conference to attack growing support for Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and Momentum, while also shamelessly stating that Conservatives “have never spent more on those with disabilities and long-term health conditions” despite well-documented massive benefit cuts.

She said: “If you were to believe everything you heard from Labour or read on social media you’d think we were somehow letting down the most vulnerable in society — especially disabled people.

“However, those who say we are cutting budgets are peddling fake news.”

The Tatton MP claims the government now spends £50 billion a year on benefits for disabled people, up £9bn from 2010.

However, Disabled People Against the Cuts co-founder Linda Burnip said these figures were a “myth” and have been massaged to include pensions and carer’s allowances.

She told the Star: “It shows what a sociopath she is. I don’t know how she has the nerve to stand up in front of an audience and say that.”

Ms McVey was forced to apologise earlier this year after being accused of misleading MPs about a report by the National Audit Office (NAO) on universal credit, which she had dismissed.

The NAO report warned that the flagship benefits shake-up was poor value for money and would force many people to foodbanks.

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And despite Labour’s severe criticism of the bungled roll-out — which saw thousands of payments delayed, pushing people into further debt and food poverty — more than two million households, including 700,000 disabled and ill claimants, will be transferred to universal credit over three years from next July.

Ms McVey even announced that the Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) would receive £39 million to help plug failings in universal credit after it bore the brunt of the chaos.

Yet she took aim at Mr Corbyn’s left-wing Labour Party, asserting that she joined the Conservatives to fight the “ugly, destructive, Marxist, Militant, socialists of the past.”

Ms McVey said: “Momentum is the modern-day Militant. And remember there are three Ms in Momentum – militant, militant, militant.

“Can you imagine it, this country with Corbyn, McDonnell and Abbott at the helm?

“It would be a political nightmare, with Labour doing what it always does — leaving office with higher unemployment than it inherited.”

But shadow work and pensions secretary Margaret Greenwood hit back. She told the Star: “The Conservative government’s cuts to social security are causing real hardship to disabled people, those on low income and people who are unemployed, yet Esther McVey claims to say so is fake news.

“Her announcement on universal support came with no new money and no answers to the major flaws in universal credit.

“Over four million children are growing up in poverty, and that figure is set to rise by another million by 2022.

“Her refusal to recognise the impact of her policies on some of the most vulnerable in our society is shameful.”

She added that Labour would “stop and fix” universal credit and prioritise tackling child poverty.

CAB head Gillian Guy said: “We offer independent and confidential advice to millions of people every year, and have already helped nearly 150,000 people with universal credit.

“We’ve seen first-hand what can happen when people struggle to make a claim and their payments are delayed.”