Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Give them Credit
6 Tory rebels help Labour vote to extend benefit boost... but will PM reverse looming cut?
SIX Tory rebels last night joined Labour MPS to back extending the £20-a-week Universal Credit increase.
Some six million families are due to be stripped of the vital extra cash at the end of March.
Labour used a parliamentary Opposition Day debate to try to shame the Conservatives into preserving the temporary lift.
Boris Johnson ordered his MPS to abstain but half a dozen sided with Keir Starmer’s party.
The Commons supported the symbolic vote by 278 to 0 although it is not binding.
But it piles pressure on the PM to perform another U-turn.
On a visit to Oxfordshire yesterday, Mr Johnson claimed his Government wanted to
ensure “people don’t suffer as a result of the economic consequences of the pandemic”.
He insisted: “What we have said is we will put our arms around the whole country throughout the pandemic.
“We have already done £280billion of support and we will keep all measures under review.”
The rise is worth £1,040 a year to households and costs the Treasury £6billion.
It was announced at the start of the first lockdown in March.
No10 tried to quell the rebellion by signalling Chancellor Rishi Sunak, whose Budget is due on March 3, would act.
But Tory MPS criticised the failure to guarantee the lifeline. Former Work and Pensions Secretary Stephen Crabb, who voted with Labour, said: “The uplift is so important. It needs to be extended for 12 months.” He added: “The question is whether at the end of March it’s the right time to begin unwinding this and I don’t believe it is.” Peter Aldous, Jason Mccartney, Anne Marie Morris, Commons Education Committee chairman Robert Halfon and Matthew Offord were the other five rebels. Some Conservatives who abstained made clear their opposition to axing the rise. Barrow and Furness MP
Simon Fell said: “This uplift was brought in to help people through the extreme challenges of the pandemic and those challenges haven’t passed.”
Business Minister Nadhim Zahawi earlier triggered fury by accusing Labour of staging “a political stunt” with the vote.
But Mr Starmer told ITV’S Lorraine: “If he’s going to call it a stunt, he should come with me to a food distribution centre to see these families and explain that what is a lifeline to them is a ‘stunt’, because it isn’t from their point of view.”
Save the Children’s head of child poverty Becca Lyon said: “Something has gone seriously wrong if we’re talking about taking money away from struggling families in a pandemic.”