Tory MPs concerned about George Osborne’s plans to cut tax credits have been urged to join Labour in voting against the measures in the Commons.
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Mr Johnson said he was “sure” Mr Osborne could come up with a way to protect people on low incomes from tax credit cuts. “I’m sure the Chancellor can do that”, he told the BBC.
Stevenage MP Stephen McPartland – one of only two Tories to vote against the tax credit cuts – said he believed Mr Osborne was preparing to take action to soften the blow.
Their warning comes after we revealed that a cross-party group of peers was set to table a “fatal motion” to scupper the statutory instrument needed to clear the way for the cuts to come into force next April.
“Many people come to see me saying they’ve got an unfair situation, in that they are finding if they work more than a certain period every week, they get their tax credit withdrawn, so it’s got to be sorted out”, he said.
“I’m sure that, irrespective of the politics of it, nobody wants to do something that is not fair to working people”.
CIVIL war broke out among Tories over tax credits yesterday as the party’s oldest think tank warned controversial cuts will “harm workers” – and its election chances.
Asked whether the Prime Minister was concerned about the threat of a fatal motion, David Cameron’s official spokeswoman said: “Let’s cross that bridge when we come to it”. The High Wycombe MP said: “Lots of us don’t like the tax credit changes”.
In contrast to the Commons, where the Conservatives have a majority of 12, the House of Lords has an in-built anti-Tory majority where Labour and Liberal Democrats can outnumber the Conservatives.
“Do they want to support working families in their constituency or do they want to support these unfair cuts?” she said.
One “insider” told the Huffington Post: “If they do this, they will turn this from being a matter about tax credits into a huge constitutional issue of the Lords’ powers”.
“We need a way forward”.
Tory unease about the plans was on display at a meeting of the 1922 Committee of Conservative backbenchers, where Mr Osborne was questioned about the measures.
“I understand that completely, but somehow or other we’ve got to reform this system”, he said.
But he argued: “I’m sure there is a way through that uses tax cuts and the living wage and other ways of helping people over the threshold and helping people get through this”. But a senior analyst at the Institute for Fiscal Studies told the Daily Telegraph that the Kent-based mother of four is unlikely to be affected, as the nail business she operates from home does not make a profit and the cuts to child tax credits do not affect existing claimants.
“They are a simply astonishing attack on working people”.
“Fifteen per cent of the United Kingdom workforce is now self-employed”. Removing tax credits would remove a crucial component of the self-employment boom. Osborne himself claimed the meeting was “very positive” as he left.
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“If tax credit cuts are to go ahead, they need to be implemented at a slower pace, in line with the introduction of the National Living Wage and the raising of the tax threshold”. The Guardian points out that the government has so far refused to publish a full impact assessment of the changes and this has led to accusations it is trying to hide the true impact of the reforms. Any vote that takes place “will not change the law as the reforms have already been approved”, the BBC notes, but the reforms could be deeply damaging for the government, especially if a number of Conservative MPs decide to cross the floor.
