“Rebalancing our economy is central to our long term plan and that is why it is so important to me that it is in the regions outside of the capital, and in the Northern Powerhouse in particular, that most working people will stand to gain”.
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Labour leadership contender Liz Kendall has defended Harriet Harman after she said she would not oppose some government welfare cuts, including the cap on household benefit income.
Ms Harman, the interim Labour leader, told the Sunday Politics yesterday the party could not indulge in “blanket opposition” and that it needed to recognise that some people felt the existing system was “unfair”. We won’t oppose the household benefit cap.
Carwyn Jones said he disagreed with her acceptance of the plan to limit claims to the first two children per family.
“I mean, what we’ve got to do is listen to what people around the country said to us and recognise that we didn’t get elected, again, and this wasn’t a blip, this was the second time we haven’t got elected, and actually what people don’t want us to do is they don’t want us to do blanket opposition”.
Harman said Labour didn’t win because people “love the Tories” but because they didn’t “trust” Labour “on the economy and on benefits”. “Families are suffering enough… we shouldn’t play the government’s political games with the welfare if children at stake”. Limiting tax credits to families with two children seems to be simply pandering to the fallacious argument that parents have large families to live off the state.
“We have to listen to that”.
Some commentators have recognised that the new living wage does come with drawbacks: notably that the cut in tax credits means that for every extra penny George giveth, George taketh away.
Bianca Todd, said: “The £7.20 an hour next April rising to £9 an hour in 2020 is hardly a living wage, it is an attempt at a survival wage, however let us be real – no one can survive on that as the cost of living goes up”.
Her remarks can be interpreted many ways but are hardly likely to be seen as endorsement of Jeremy Corbyn, the leftwinger who is doing better than many senior party figures expected in the Labour leadership campaign.
Mr Cameron believes the group needs to be confronted in its Syrian stronghold but is reluctant to ask MPs to vote on extending British military action into the country unless he can be assured of Labour’s support.
She added: “Harriet was right to say that we have to provide a credible alternative…”
“Harriet is always a very open and democratic politician so I am sure when she meets us we will arrive at a conclusion that reflects the views of party members”.
She said the party was opposing the “big” tax credit changes, cuts to ESA disability payments, and abolition of grants for students from disadvantaged backgrounds.
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However, the spokeswoman insisted there would not be a decisive vote on that issue until the autumn, when a new leader will be in place. We have to put forward a different, credible alternative. If we take the old adage “all publicity is good publicity”, then the Tories are still riding their post-election high, whilst Labour have sunk to irrelevance.
