Tax Credits

The parliamentary battle to halt the all-out war on the poor...


 (what we want is a war on poverty - with the issues that are causing greater uncertainty, instability, institutional disadvantaging and problems for those on low - and even medium incomes - being addressed)



... goes into high gear today.



The House of Commons will be debating the motion "That this House calls on the Government to reverse its decision to cut tax credits, which is due to come into effect in April 2016." Already there is much disquiet in Tory ranks about the policy (and its potential impact on their re-election prospects). Recent revelations about how the government has been playing hard and fast with the facts have increased their unease.


If you can email your local Tory MP - I would urge you to do so. They are there to represent ALL their constituents - not just the rich and comfortably off. Perhaps a few might vote according to an awakened conscious - or at the very least to reduce the number of people who might be motivated to work for their defeat if they don't stand up against these pernicious proposals.


Then next week the matter may come before the House of Lords. On Monday the Order Paper sets down the following business -

Tax Credits (Income Thresholds and Determination of Rates) (Amendment) Regulations 2015 Lord O’Neill of Gatley to move that the draft Regulations laid before the House on 7 September be approved. 4th Report from the Joint Committee on Statutory Instruments, 9th Report from the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee

Lord Kirkwood of Kirkhope to move, as an amendment to the above motion, at end to insert "but this House regrets the lack of available evidence in support of the policy changes contained in the Regulations as set out in the Social Security Advisory Committee’s letter to the Financial Secretary to the Treasury of 9 September 2015, and that the Regulations fail to take account of concerns about their short-term impact on the household incomes of working families."

A defeat on the main motion would be regarded as "fatal" - and there have been some ugly threats about would might happen if the government failed to get its way.

In a year when Parliament has been celebrating Magna Carta; Simon de Montfort's Parliament; the Chartists; the Suffragettes and so on - see http://www.parliament.uk/festival-of-freedoms. It would be good to see Parliament rising to the challenge of protecting the British people's rights.