North-east MP Stuart Donaldson challenged the prime minister over his faith in the chancellor yesterday after the UK Government was forced to abandon cuts to disability benefits.
One of the youngest MPs in the Commons, he mocked the “extensive list” of government ministers and advisers who have resigned after the PM expressed “full confidence” in them.
He went on: “Can I ask the prime minister ‘do you still have full confidence in the chancellor?'”
David Cameron insisted that “of course” he did, adding: “I tell you why….
“He’s the one working as part of a team that has delivered the fastest growing economy in the G7, 2.4 million more people in work, inflation that is practically zero, wages that are growing and an economy that is getting stronger.”
The exchange came during a Prime Minister’s Questions dominated by George Osborne’s U-turn on planned cuts to Personal Independence Payments.
They had been due to save £4.4billion from the welfare budget, but were dropped in the face of opposition, some from within his own party.
Mr Osborne, who has faced calls to resign, has since said the Government currently has no plans to make further welfare savings, insisting the cost of the U-turn can be absorbed.
Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn sought to capitalise on the Tory divisions and called on Mr Cameron to apologise for the stress he had caused disabled people.
But he was undermined when the PM made hay with a list, published in a national newspaper, of Labour MPs ranked according to their loyalty.
It rated MPs from “core” to “hostile” and was reportedly drawn up by key allies of the Labour leader.
Earlier, during Scottish Questions, David Mundell was asked if – like Iain Duncan Smith – he had intended to resign over the proposed PIP reductions.
SNP MP Stewart McDonald pushed the Scottish secretary to explain when he realised they were wrong or whether he “was planning a resignation over the weekend”.
Mr Mundell was in the chamber at the time, but not replying to that particular set of questions.
Work and pensions minister Priti Patel – answering on behalf of the Government – insisted its position had been “abundantly clear”.
Shadow Scottish secretary, Ian Murray, asked her if she wanted to take the opportunity to “apologise on behalf of the Scottish Conservative Party to the tens of thousands of vulnerable and disabled Scots affected by this shambles”.
She said there would be “no further changes to disability payments”.