The Tory candidate for mayor of London, a former party chairwoman and a number of Tory MPs from the 2015 intake joined the revolt against proposed cuts to tax credits yesterday as the government fought to defend their measures from possible defeat in the House of Lords.
Baroness Meacher, the leading crossbench peer, appeared to withdraw at the last minute her threat of a “fatal” motion which would kill the chancellor’s plans and force them to be reintroduced in the Lords.
After Baroness Stowell of Beeston, the leader of the House of Lords, Baroness D’Souza, the Lord Speaker, and Lord Laming, the crossbench convenor, discussed the issue, peers were warned that there would be a constitutional crisis if they persisted in blocking the measures, which aim to save £4.4 billion, because the House of Lords does not usually vote on finance measures.
It was agreed that a different motion would be tabled, asking the government to respond to claims by the Institute for Fiscal Studies. One source close to Baroness Meacher said the reworded motion could still force the government to take the bill back to the Commons for a new vote before it could progress.
Three days also remain in which it would be possible for another peer to table a “fatal” motion.
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There was growing unrest in the Commons as Heidi Allen, the new Tory MP for South Cambridgeshire, used her maiden speech to criticise the chancellor’s plans, saying they were “too hard and too fast”, while Johnny Mercer, another Conservative MP from the 2015 intake, urged George Osborne to do “something, anything” to ease the “harshest” effects of the cuts on vulnerable people.
Zac Goldsmith, the party’s candidate for London mayor, intensified his opposition by signing a cross-party motion, as did David Davis, the former leadership contender. The motion, drawn up by Frank Field, the veteran Labour MP, urges Mr Osborne to “mitigate” the impact of the cuts on the poorest.
Baroness Warsi, the former Conservative chairman, also joined in the revolt, praising Ms Allen’s “brave and principled” speech, and adding that tax credits “provided my parents the necessary buffer to allow us to study and work our way out of poverty”. The issue is due to be debated a week on Thursday.
Adding to pressure from the right, the Adam Smith Institute and Institute of Economic Affairs both warned that cutting the credits in April would undermine incentives to work.
Meanwhile a Northern Ireland MP accused the Treasury of betrayal. Lady Hermon, the independent unionist from North Down, said: “I am embarrassed to say that I voted with the government on the cut to tax credits. I did so on the understanding that there would be mitigation in the chancellor’s autumn statement of the worst effects.”
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“The minister cannot imagine my anger as I listened to the prime minister and the chancellor rule out any such mitigation. I will be voting with the opposition this evening unless the minister tells this House what mitigation the chancellor will guarantee in his autumn statement.”
More than a million Londoners living in poverty are in a working family, an increase of 70 per cent over the past decade, according to new research. More than a quarter of people in the capital are now said to be in poverty compared with 20 per cent across England, the study found.The report by New Policy Institute, funded by the Trust for London charity, said improving employment prospects had not been enough to lift people out of poverty in London.The number of low-paid jobs is up for the fifth year in a row, with almost one in five not paying the London Living Wage, while 1.2 million people in poverty live in a working family, said the study.Other “striking” findings include temporary work contracts at a ten-year high and a 19 per cent increase in rents in the past five years, compared to a figure of 11 per cent for England.