Harman provokes backlash by saying Labour will not fight tax credit curbs
ACTING Labour leader Harriet Harman has provoked a backlash after saying her party will accept some of the Chancellor’s radical welfare cuts, including a two-child limit on tax credits.
The acting Labour leader said her party had to acknowledge that it lost the election because voters did not trust it “on the economy and on benefits”.
She said the party would accept the household benefits cap and George Osborne’s decision to limit tax credits and universal credits to two children.
Labour leadership contender Yvette Cooper hit out at Ms Harman’s move.
A spokesman for Yvette For Labour 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. She has said that the Tory plans for cutting tax credits and abandoning the child poverty target do both and Labour should strongly oppose them.
“She believes Britain needs an alternative approach – and that Labour should argue for a real alternative to Tory plans.”
The Labour position outlined by Ms Harman is an attempt to regain the trust of voters on financial responsibility.
She told BBC1’s Sunday Politics: “I think we won’t oppose the Welfare bill.
“We won’t oppose the household benefit cap. I mean, for example, what they brought forward in relation to restricting benefits and tax credits for people ... with three or more children.
“What we’ve got to do is listen to what people around the country said to us and recognise we didn’t get elected, again, and this wasn’t a blip, this was the second time we haven’t got elected.
“Actually what people don’t want us to do is they don’t want us to do blanket opposition, they want us to actually be specific about what we are going to be challenging and holding the government to account on, but more than that, they want us to listen to their concerns and we’ve got to recognise why the Tories are in government and not us.
“Which is not because people love the Tories particularly, but because they didn’t trust us on the economy and on benefits.”