She was speaking after the House of Lords blocked plans to cut tax credits, forcing Mr Osborne, the Chancellor, to announce that he would rethink the proposals.
Advertisement
According to prime minister David Cameron, the upper house contradicted conventions dating back to the aftermath of Lloyd George’s People’s Budget of 1909 which clarified peers do not interfere in financial matters.
“If it is their intention to tear up the rules that have applied for half a century and say “We are happy to throw out the programme of the elected Government“, then of course we have got to address that”.
Osborne said, “We will continue to reform tax credits and save the money needed so that Britain lives within its means, while at the same time lessening the impact on families during the transition”.
The question prompted Mr Osborne to quip: “That is a very decent proposal for the Autumn Statement we will give proper consideration to”. “I am determined to deliver that lower welfare, higher wage economy that we were elected to deliver and the British people want to see”.
Lord Campbell Savours, who now sits in the House of Lords, said Mr Cameron had deliberately “misled the public” by saying in May that tax credits would not be cut.
But after their victory, the government changed its mind completely, with child tax credits suddenly in Chancellor George Osborn’s cross hairs.
Ministers are urging critics in the Lords to express their anxiety by backing a motion tabled by Church of England bishops expressing “regret” over the impact while allowing the cuts to complete their parliamentary passage.
“These are people who go to work, look after their kids, do everything asked of them and they are going to lose, on average, about 1,300 pounds ($2,000) a year”, he said.
Mr Cameron had even promised in a pre-election TV debate that he would not cut tax credits.
Mr Hancock said: “It would be unprecedented for the unelected House of Lords to reject a financial measure of this scale that has been passed by the House of Commons”.
“I have said I would listen and that’s precisely what I intend to do”, he said.
THE Government has been defeated in the Lords over its controversial plans to cut tax credits – setting the stage for a constitutional clash with the Commons.
“It’s just unacceptable, not just to the House of Lords but also to MPs on all sides in the House of Commons”.
“Not for 100 years has the House of Lords defied this elected House”, Sir Edward Leigh said.
A report from the social policy think tank Policy in Practice has found that two-thirds of families on tax credits would still be worse off by 2020 despite the increase in the new National Living Wage.
Advertisement
Downing Street said a review of the constitutional implications would begin straight away, arguing that a “convention exists and it has been broken”.
