Instead, the case he made to MPs was that the Tory party was elected on the basis that it would cut £12bn from the welfare budget, and that there is no other way of reaching that target without making the changes to tax credits.
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The chancellor was under growing pressure to think again on sweeping cuts to tax credits for low-paid workers last night after it emerged that peers were plotting to derail the plan.
The impact of the cuts, which will leave an estimated 3.2 million families worse off by an average of £1,300 a year from next April, is already causing concern among Conservative MPs and ministers.
London Mayor and Tory MP Mr Johnson earlier paved the way for a partial Tory U-turn, demanding the Treasury “minimise the impact” so the cuts don’t “bear down unfairly on the working poor”.
“This is something that is under intensive review and consultation at the moment”, he said.
Former Tory Cabinet minister Andrew Mitchell yesterday claimed that he was “sure the Chancellor is keeping an open mind and will be looking to see whether any specific tweaks need to be made”. ‘What I would like to see is working with the tax and benefit system and the living wage to make sure that hard-working people on low incomes are protected.
But Baroness Meacher is expected to table a rare “fatal motion” challenging the policy which would mean it is debated and voted on in the Lords, where the government does not have a majority. I’m sure the Chancellor can do that’.
Mr Osborne is also facing a possible last-ditch bid to kill off the cuts in the House of Lords.
The move would nearly certainly to lead to a Government defeat because the Tories do not have a majority in the Upper Chamber.
“It is unbelievable to me that people go out to work and they earn as little as £3,850 – and even at that level of earnings they will be losing tax credits”.
Campaigners believe that the usual Salisbury convention, which stops the Lords from blocking a party’s plans, does not apply because the tax credits cuts were not mentioned in the Tory manifesto in May.
Asked whether the Prime Minister was concerned about the threat, the Prime Minister’s official spokesman told reporters: ‘Let’s cross that bridge when we come to it’.
“This issue transcends narrow party lines, as surely none of us came in to politics to take money away from low and middle paid workers”, they wrote. “Members of the Lords need to think about the approach we are taking and listen to the arguments”.
New analysis released today shows that the Tories” “damaging’ tax credit cuts will hit thousands of working families across the country.
Around 52pc of families receive tax credits in the constituency.
He said MPs were aware they were part of a package, which also included the new National Living Wage and the increase in the tax-free personal allowance.
“We respectfully ask you to work with us, grasp that opportunity and help end the deeply unfair tax credit cuts”.
Bow Group chair Ben Harris-Quinney said: “It is unclear why a policy that will disproportionately harm workers is being supported by the Conservative Party at a time when the party is keen to claim the title of the workers’ party”.
Stevenage MP Stephen McPartland – one of only two Tories to vote against the tax credit cuts – said he believed Mr Osborne was preparing measures to soften the impact of welfare reforms.
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George Osborne has fended off Conservative MPs anxious at proposed cuts to tax credits at a private meeting of party’s 1922 backbench committee, by insisting the changes have to go ahead and warning that if he had not acted then £15bn worth of spending cuts would have to be found elsewhere.
