Crossbench Labour and Liberal Democrat peers, who together have more peers in the Lords than the government, say that tax credit cuts were not in the Conservative manifesto and are therefore not protected by the so-called “Salisbury-Addison convention”, under which the House of Lords does not stand in the way of election promises.
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Labour have tabled a motion calling for a delay in the reforms while a package of financial assistance is drafted.
The House of Lords, Parliament’s unelected upper chamber, is scheduled to vote Monday on whether to take the rare step of defying the House of Commons by striking down the cuts. He said the Lords should “listen to that carefully” and recognize that it was for the lower house to make financial decisions and the Lords to revise other legislation.
“We can be supportive of the government… or we can be supportive instead of the three million families facing letters at Christmas telling them, on average, they will lose around £1,300 a year”, said Patricia Hollis, a Labour lord who tabled one of the successful motions, which aimed to soften the impact of the cuts for three years.
But the government is still trying to explain that the cuts will not make people worse off, thanks to the introduction of a National Living Wage, a rise in the income tax threshold and free childcare.
As a growing number of ministers privately call on the chancellor to change tack, well-placed Whitehall sources say there is a growing expectation that Osborne will act in his autumn statement on 25 November.
Mr Hancock told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “George is very much in listening mode and the peers this afternoon have the opportunity through a motion put down by the Bishop of Portsmouth to express regret at this measure without breaking these constitutional conventions”.
Earlier a “fatal” motion to scrap the cuts altogether was defeated.
There’s lots of talk in black and white terms about whether the House of Lords can refuse a regulation making changes to Tax Credits.
Rebecca Falcon, campaigns manager at 38 Degrees, says: “This poll shows that tax credit cuts are turning into a political disaster for the United Kingdom government”.
‘The Prime Minister is determined we will address this constitutional issue.
These cuts are going to hurt ordinary working voters, and although Tories have been aware of a potential backlash, they are united in a belief that the system needs reforming.
“George Osborne must now go back to the drawing board and come back with plans to balance the books that don’t simply attack working families who are already struggling to get by”, he said.
Lord Howard, the former Conservative leader, warned that there will be “consequences” if peers do not allow the Government “to have its business passed”.
And the Shadow Chancellor, John McDonnell, offered to back Osborne if he changes his mind.
Lady Stowell said the cuts could not be viewed in isolation as they were part of the Chancellor’s Budget and would deliver £4.4 billion of savings out of £12 billion planned for the welfare budget.
Lord Butler, a former Cabinet secretary and cross-bench peer, has warned that the House of Lords was “getting too big for its non-elected boots”.
‘He [Osborne] decided actually to hit people in work rather harder than people out of work, ‘ director Paul Johnson said.
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MPs will have a fourth chance to vote on the cuts on Thursday – after Conservative backbenchers David Davis and Zac Goldsmith joined forces with Labour’s Frank Field to secure a cross-party debate. “So it is perhaps not surprising that there are a few peers, such as Baroness Meacher, who are willing to threaten action in the form of a ‘fatal motion”.
