Osborne also said that Budget would ensure that almost 30 million working Britons would be given an income tax cut.
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“The Tory attack on strivers – despite all they said before, during, and after the election campaign – now gives us a chance to reposition Labour on the strivers’ side and not simply be a pressure group for people on benefit, whatever their circumstances”.
Support for children through tax credits and universal credits will also be limited to two children, affecting children born after April 2017 unless the third child is the result of twins, triplets or other multiple birth.
“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”.
She said Labour was against the reduction in the tax credit threshold to £3,850 a year, adding it would leave families an average of £1,000 a year worse off.
“Higher wage, lower tax, lower welfare Britain” was his mantra.
While welfare payments will indeed be cut to the tune of £12 billion, the Chancellor’s package would in fact increase taxes by £6.5 billion a year by 2020 and it was a “gamble” to rely on the new mandatory NLW to increase incomes, the IFS found. I mean, for example, what they brought forward in relation to restricting benefits and tax credits for people… with three or more children.
Mr Javid dismissed the assessment – but appeared to blunder over the value of the flagship NLW, claiming it would be £7.50 an hour.
The Prime Minister’s defence of the Budget follows analysis by the respected independent Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) which found th e poor will lose out more than the rich from the Chancellor’s “regressive” package.
But Mr Cameron will say: ” The Budget’s combination of reducing welfare, cutting income tax, reducing corporation tax and insisting on a national living wage is an approach that will make sure the lowest-paid benefit from our economic success.
Labour backbencher Diane Abbott indicated that she expected Ms Harman to back down.
Ms Cooper said Labour should strongly oppose the cuts, saying she did not believe the best way to reduce the deficit was “to hit working families, reduce work incentives and push more children into poverty”.
“Families are suffering enough”.
“We shouldn’t play the government’s political games with the welfare if children at stake”.
A spokesman for Labour leadership contender Andy Burnham said he opposed the cuts to child tax credits.
Mr Osborne in a statement said that the budget presented by him was for working people and puts security first.
“You don’t allow a change that is going to take money off people in work who are trying to do the right thing”.
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Labour’s acting leader was pilloried on Sunday for failing to provide meaningful opposition to the Tory cuts detailed in George’s Osborne’s recent budget. SNP MPs will continue to be the principled opposition to the Tory austerity programme.
