MPs Reverse Lords’ Welfare Reform Defeats
A showdown between MPs and peers looms after the Commons overturned seven Lords defeats on the Government’s welfare reforms.
MPs voted by big majorities to restore some of the most controversial measures in the Welfare Reform Bill, with a majority of 82 for the controversial cap on benefits.
But in one vote – on the so-called “bedroom tax” – the coalition’s majority slumped to 42, as 14 Liberal Democrat MPs and two Tories, Gordon Henderson and Andrew Percy, rebelled.
Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith announced concessions on the welfare changes, but during the Commons debate the Government insisted it would claim “financial privilege” to drive the reforms through the Lords.
That prompted angry protests in the Lords, with Opposition peers accusing the Government of “hiding behind parliamentary procedure” to defeat the Lords’ objections.
Earlier, at Prime Minister’s Questions, David Cameron taunted Ed Miliband on whether Labour MPs would vote for or against the benefit cap, after claiming they supported it in principle.
“What we have had from the party opposite is complete silence,” said Mr Cameron. “Are you going to be supporting us tonight in the lobbies? Why not just nod? Nod? Nod? Answer came there none.”
The Government’s concessions include families receiving a 12-month grace period to find work and those who lose their job through no fault of their own after being employed for a year given nine months in which to find new employment.
Households entitled to working tax credit are to be exempt from the benefit cap, along with war widows and widowers.
But introducing the Government’s moves to overturn the Lords defeats, Work and Pensions minister Chris Grayling said: “We have to change the nature of our welfare state.
“We have got to move away from the world which existed under the previous government, where children grew up generation after generation in houses where no-one worked, entire communities had people who had no experience of work in their family, who knew nothing about how to improve their lot in life.
“If we walk out onto the streets this afternoon and ask the public what they think about a benefits’ cap, we will discover virtually 100% behind this policy.”
In the big vote on excluding child benefit from the benefit cap, the Lords amendment was rejected by 334 votes to 251 – a Government majority of 83.
Earlier, an amendment exempting cancer patients from the time limit was overturned by 328 to 265, a majority of 63.
A Lords defeat over plans to cut payments to disabled children was overturned by 324 votes to 255, majority 69.
And the peers’ attempt to prevent the so-called “bedroom tax” on under-occupied homes was thrown out by 310 to 268, majority 42.
The CSA charge amendment, the subject of a massive Tory rebellion in the Lords by 12 former Cabinet ministers who served under Margaret Thatcher and John Major, was overturned by 318 votes to 257, majority 61.
