Shirley Williams admits: ‘Bedroom tax is a mistake’

A senior Lib Dem has branded the bedroom tax a mistake as Labour looks set to axe the controversial policy if it wins the next General Election.

Dame Shirley Williams hit out at the controversial tax as the Lib Dem conference got underway in Glasgow.

Dame Shirley said: “I find it very hard indeed to raise the slightest enthusiasm for the bedroom tax. I think it was a mistake. I think there were some cases for some elements of welfare reform.”

Her criticism comes as Labour leader Ed Miliband is now expected to use his party’s conference later this week to announce his intention to abolish the policy if elected.

Labour’s Scottish welfare spokeswoman Jackie Baillie insisted the party would scrap the spare bedroom subsidy policy and a formal announcement was imminent.

Baillie was asked on radio if a Westminster Labour government would ditch the unpopular tax.

She said: “We are very clear. Labour rejected this approach when it was put to them in government, for social landlords. We have campaigned for its abolition. Yes we will abolish it. My understanding is that you can expect an announcement relatively soon.”

A UK Labour spokesman tried to distance the party from her comments saying: “We haven’t made that pledge to date”. Meanwhile, Scottish Lib Dem leader Willie Rennie used his address to the Glasgow conference to call for tougher sentencing in domestic abuse cases following the Bill Walker scandal.

Rennie said the prosecution guidelines in Scotland should be tightened to take account of patterns of abuse.

Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg used his opening address to conference to have a go at his Tory coalition partners.

Claiming the Lib Dems are the party of jobs, Clegg said: “The Tories have a bizarre idea that to create more jobs you need to increase insecurity. They aren’t the Party of Jobs. They are the Party of Fire At Will.”

Meanwhile, Business Secretary Vince Cable is to press for an increase in the minimum wage.

He is to ask the Low Pay Commission to restore its value, which has fallen in real terms by 10-12% since the 2008 crash. He said: “We cannot go on forever in a low pay and low productivity world in which all we can say to workers is ‘You have got to take a wage cut to keep your job’.”

Today, UK Energy Secretary Ed Davey is expected to tell the conference about plans to make the cost of developing onshore wind farms on Scotland’s islands more affordable.