Government tax credit cuts get the stamp of approval from MPs
CHANCELLOR George Osborne’s proposals to cut tax credits have been approved by MPs, despite strong opposition from Labour and the SNP.
In his emergency Summer Budget, Osborne announced plans to lower the earnings threshold above which tax credits are withdrawn, and said he would speed up the rate at which the benefit is lost as people’s pay rises.
Ministers say the move will save the Treasury £4.4bn and incentivise work.
But Labour has called the proposal an “ideological attack” on working families, and the SNP has said the changes will endanger families who may not be able to afford to buy food or heat their homes. In a debate preceding yesterday’s vote, Jeremy Corbyn’s newly-appointed shadow chief secretary to the treasury Seema Malhotra called the bill “cynical”.
Yet the cut to tax credits was approved by a margin of 35 votes last night, with 325 MPs favouring the cut and 290 rejecting it.