Labour leadership hopefuls turn on Harman over child tax credits

Labour’s acting leader was pilloried on Sunday for failing to provide meaningful opposition to the Tory cuts detailed in George’s Osborne’s recent budget.

Labour will not be voting against the government’s welfare bill and the limiting of child tax credits to two children, Harriet Harman has confirmed.

“Rebalancing our economy is central to our long term plan and that is why it is so important to me that it is in the regions outside of the capital, and in the Northern Powerhouse in particular, that most working people will stand to gain”.

Three Labour leadership hopefuls say they will oppose Harriet Harman’s plan to support the Government’s proposals to cut child tax credits.

A Labour spokesman said Ms Harman’s appearance before the parliamentary party was in keeping with the tradition that there is an address by the leader before the summer Commons recess, and not a reaction to the row.

“Andy will not offer blanket opposition and, where we agree with a government policy, we won’t oppose for the sake of it”, a spokesman said.

But during a live TV debate this morning, only one of the four leadership candidates backed her. Liz Kendall declared: “I want to support what Harriet said, we have to listen to what people have said to us, that they didn’t trust us and we have to change“, she said.

Ms Harman warned party members “not to vote for someone you like and who makes you comfortable but who will be able to reach out to the public and listen to the public and give them confidence”. “Families are suffering enough… we shouldn’t play the government’s political games with the welfare if children at stake”.

A spokeswoman for Yvette Cooper said: “Yvette has made clear from the start that she does not believe the best way to reduce the deficit is to hit working families, reduce work incentives and push more children into poverty”.

The IFS has said that three million households would be worse off by £1000 a year because of cuts to tax-credits.

Two-thirds of those who will benefit from the new national living wage are women, which is something I hope everyone will celebrate.

Bianca Todd, said: “The £7.20 an hour next April rising to £9 an hour in 2020 is hardly a living wage, it is an attempt at a survival wage, however let us be real – no one can survive on that as the cost of living goes up”.

Labour leadership contender Jeremy Corbyn reiterated his opposition to any extension of the air campaign to Syria.

“I think we have to determine very carefully where Isis came from, where they get their money from, where they get their arms from and what brought them about”. But these are very big issues and they probably need to have a new leader in place so that the party can unite behind a position…

She said the party was opposing the “big” tax credit changes, cuts to ESA disability payments, and abolition of grants for students from disadvantaged backgrounds. We have to put forward a different, credible alternative.

Her comments, in a BBC interview, follow a report that she clashed with Mr Burnham in a Shadow Cabinet meeting last week over the party’s Budget response, rebuking him: “You may have noticed we lost the election”.