JEREMY CORBYN dropped Labour’s controversial support for the Tory benefit cap yesterday, saying it caused “social cleansing.”

Mr Corbyn, elected Labour leader on Saturday, won two standing ovations at TUC Congress as he tore into Tory “poverty-deniers.”

And in his first major policy change, he announced it was now Labour’s official position to oppose the benefit cap and Welfare Reform.

“We will bring the welfare bill down by controlling rents and boosting wages, not by impoverishing families and the most vulnerable people,” the Labour leader said.

The move represents a rupture with former acting leader Harriet Harman, who ordered Labour MPs to abstain in a vote on the Bill in July.

She wanted Labour to support elements of the Bill, including plans to cut the household benefit cap by £6,000 to just £20,000-a-year.

Mr Corbyn was among 48 Labour MPs who defied party whips to vote against the Bill.

Speaking yesterday, he said: “The Welfare Reform Bill is anything but welfare reform.

“It’s all about building on the cuts they’ve already made and making the lives of vulnerable and poorest people in our society even worse.

“The reduction of the benefit cap has the effect of social cleansing many parts of our towns and cities.”

Mr Corbyn has already held discussions with his new shadow work and pensions secretary Owen Smith about amendments Labour will make to the Bill.

The amendments would “remove the whole idea of a benefit cap” from the bill, according to the Labour leader.

The Tories claimed that Mr Corbyn’s election as leader showed Labour pose a risk to Britain’s economic security.

Anticipating claims the opposition to the Welfare Bill meant Labour are “deficit-deniers,” Mr Corbyn said: “What they are is poverty deniers.

“Ignoring the growing queues at foodbanks. Ignoring the growing housing crisis. Cutting tax credits when child poverty rose by half a million under the last government to over four million.”

Addressing 500 union members, he also said the Tories are “declaring war on organised labour” through their Trade Union Bill.

That Bill passed its second reading on Monday evening with a majority of 33.

But Mr Corbyn said: “When we have been elected with a majority in 2020, we are going to repeal this Bill and replace it with a workers’ rights agenda.”

Unite leader Len McCluskey said: “It was incredibly refreshing to have a Labour leader embrace trade unions, as opposed to the Prime Minister who used to call us the enemy within.”

After delivering his speech, Mr Corbyn raced to Parliament in order to lead Labour MPs in voting against Tory cuts to working tax credits. 

Three million families will lose £1,000-a-year if the cuts are passed, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies. 

It emerged last night that 54,000 people had submitted questions to Labour since Saturday following Mr Corbyn’s announcement of an initiative for the public to “crowdsource” Prime Minister’s Questions.