Labour’s shadow Scottish Secretary has admitted his party is out of sync with the public on the issue of welfare reform but called for the social security spending to be cut.
Speaking on the Sunday Post’s politics podcast Edinburgh South MP Ian Murray said: “There’s broad consensus across the whole of politics that the welfare bill needs to come down.”
However he pointed out that costs have continued to rise despite five years of coalition government cuts and he accused the Conservative government of not understanding how the tax credit system they are slashing actually works.
He said people who fall in and out of the social security system due to serious or terminal illness will end up £1800 worse off because they’ll be treated as new claimants each time they need to call on the benefits safety net.
However he said interim leader Harriet Harman’s move to sign up to welfare cuts had “backfired”.
Harman last week appeared to signal Labour would support Tory policies limiting benefits to the first two children in a family only for most of those seeking to succeed her to disown her stance.
Added Murray: “The way she articulated it has backfired, in the eyes of the public at least.”
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