George Osborne, the former Conservative chancellor, has said the main obstacle to cutting the welfare bill came from his own party, not from Labour or the left, Newswav reports.
"It was the Tories who were against cutting welfare."
He named Boris Johnson, Sir Iain Duncan Smith, Lord Lawson and Rishi Sunak. Osborne was chancellor from 2010 to 2016.
His comments come after Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative leader, said John Healey should pay for taking defence spending to 3% of GDP by cutting welfare and reining in borrowing. She made the call ahead of the Budget on Wednesday 28 October.
Osborne said Badenoch is "on the right vein" on welfare. But he said the welfare bill "exploded" under the Johnson and Sunak governments.
His account of who blocked cuts during his time at the Treasury, and his claim about the growth of the welfare bill, have not been independently checked.