Let families claim unlimited benefits demands Corbyn
JEREMY Corbyn last night demanded an end to the benefits cap – and called for 1970s-style State control of rents.
The Labour l eader said households should claim limitless amounts in handouts – and that curbs had caused ‘social cleansing’.
Instead, he said ministers should impose ‘rent regulation’, a policy last used in the UK 30 years ago and associated with hard-Left governments around the world.
It came as a poll showed Mr Corbyn has the worst poll ratings of any new Labour leader for three decades.
Less than two weeks into his new job, the Islington MP is already less popular than his f ail ed predecessors Michael Foot, Neil Kinnock and Ed Miliband.
On the benefits cap, Mr Corbyn told ITV News he was strongly opposed to the current ceiling of £26,000 and plans by the Government to cut it to £23,000 in London and £20,000 elsewhere.
He said: ‘You can’t put a figure on it. In the past there was no cap on it ... the amount of money saved in the overall budget from the household benefit cap is actually quite small.’ He added: ‘My view is the Government should introduce rent regulation. Until we get rent regulation, this is the consequence we are going to pay.’
However, Treasury figures show the cap helps save £185million a year. And critics of rent controls said they would be ‘ disastrous’ for tenants.
Mark Littlewood, of the Institute of Economic Affairs, said: ‘The key cause of the high- cost renting is the lack of supply of homes where people want to live.
Labour’s proposals to hold down rent increases will do nothing to improve this.’
Mr Corbyn’s overall rating is minus three per cent, according to the IpsosMori poll. Just 33 per cent said they were satisfied with the way he is doing his job – compared to 36 per cent who were dissatisfied.
And only 37 per cent viewed him as patriotic following his decision not to sing the national anthem at a Battle of Britain memorial service.
Most think he is more honest than David Cameron, but less than one in three say he is a capable leader.
The public also see Labour as more divided, extreme and out of date than before its crushing election defeat in May.