Price of cruelty

THE harrowing testimonies of women forced into prostitution after being denied benefits by a system condemned by the UN is another blow to Universal Credit.

The benefit should be renamed Universally Discredited as its cruelty shames a civilised, wealthy country. Conservative politicians blind to grim reality are the only people who think that this is working.

Work and Pensions Secretary Amber Rudd must repair the structural faults that force these abandoned women into the sex industry.

Her denial of the UN assessor’s evidence about the depth of poverty in Britain was a bad start. Women driven to sell their bodies for sex shame her aloof, uncaring government.