Tax Credit Debate

MPs vote against today’s Opposition motion calling on the Government to reverse its decision to cut Tax Credits by 317 votes to 295.

A fine speech by Heidi Allen, who was elected MP for South Cambridgeshire in May. Ms Allen made the point that cuts fail David Cameron’s “family test” and are driven by the chancellor’s mistaken decision to run an overall budget surplus. “It is right that people are encouraged to strive for self- reliance and to find work that pays for their independence from the state,” she said. “But I worry that our single-minded determination to run a budget surplus is betraying who we are. I know true Conservatives have compassion running through their veins.”

'A betrayal of who we are' said Heidi picked up well by Owen Smith MP. 

The Labour Pary arguments for voting against Tax Credit Cuts.

1. The cuts to tax credits will hit more than three million families in work

2. On average, each of these families will lose £1,300 next year

3. For these families, it's effectively a penalty for working

4. The government has claimed that their so-called ‘National Living Wage’ (lower than that calculated by the Living Wage Foundation) will compensate for the cut. The independent Institute for Fiscal Studies has said that this is “arithmetically impossible”

5. As a result of the cut, child poverty will increase. The Resolution Foundation has found that all the tax and benefit changes in the Government’s Summer Budget will push 200,000 children into poverty next year

6. David Cameron never mentioned these plans before his election campaign despite having lots of opportunity to do so. In fact, before the election, he promised not to cut child tax credits and made no mention of any other changes, yet these cuts were announced in his first Budget after the election