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First, he came for your ciggies, then he spoiled your Samba’s. Now, Rishi Sunak wants to take away duvet days.

Britain’s much-loved (ah-hem) Prime Minister is cooking up a plan to tackle what he calls the UK “sick note” culture, and plans to start by stripping family doctors of their power to sign people off work.

Sunak’s plan to kill sick days comes at a time when the percentage of employed working-age Britons is at its lowest point since 2015, reportedly due to a surge in people on long-term sick leave, as well as an increase in the number of students.

Hopefully, he isn’t planning to ban students as well.

“If you are feeling anxious or depressed, then of course you should get the support and treatment you need to manage your condition. But that doesn’t mean we should assume you can’t engage in work.”

Sunak told an audience at the Centre for Social Justice in London in a speech on welfare reforms that “It’s not fair on everyone else.  So we are going to tighten up the Work Capability Assessment.”

According to official data, 9.4 million Britons aged 16 to 64, which is 22% of that age group, are neither working nor unemployed. This number has increased from 8.55 million just before the pandemic. Among them, 2.8 million are long-term sick, and 206,000 are temporarily ill.

The Prime Minister said welfare benefits in the United Kingdom had become a “lifestyle choice” for some, causing a “spiralling” welfare bill for the country.

“We need to be more ambitious about helping people back to work and more honest about the risk of over-medicalising the everyday challenges and worries of life.”