The Prime Minister has been accused of failing to outline the specifics of his plans for welfare savings in the Tory manifesto because he knew he would not be elected.
Aberdeen North MP Kirsty Blackman attacked David Cameron over the UK Government’s proposals to cut tax credits during Prime Minister’s Questions in the Commons yesterday.
She asked: “How dare anyone in this House earning £74,000 a year tell families that their combined income of £25,000 is too much and that they need to give some of it back to balance the economy?
“Did the Prime Minister refuse to put this in his manifesto because he knew he wouldn’t be elected?”
Tax credits were brought in by the last Labour government to help low-paid families.
Under George Osborne’s plan – defeated twice in the Lords on Monday – the income threshold for receiving working tax credits and child tax credits was due to be lowered from April.
For a family with one child, the annual household income limit is currently £25,000.
Mr Cameron said the Government had inherited a “crazy” system under which even some MPs were receiving tax credits.
He told Mrs Blackman: “When I became Prime Minister, nine out of 10 families were getting tax credits.
“We reduced that during the last parliament – opposed I have to say of course by Labour and the SNP – to six out of 10 families.
“Our proposals would take that down to five out of 10 families.”
He added that they were part of a package of measures, including the introduction of a national living wage and an increase to £11,000 in the personal income tax threshold.
“Those sorts of measures will help the sort of family she talks about,” the Tory leader added.
The issue dominated the weekly sparring session, with Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn repeatedly asking Mr Cameron whether or not people on tax credits would be worse off from April.
Peers backed two motions at the start of the week to delay the proposed £4.4billion cuts.
In the aftermath of the double defeat, Mr Osborne insisted he would press ahead with changes to reduce the welfare bill.
But he confirmed he would announce plans to ease the transition to lower tax credits in next month’s Autumn Statement.
During the General Election campaign, the Tories said they intended to make £12billion of savings from welfare, but did not explicitly outline the tax credit cuts.