GEORGE Osborne claimed the Tories are the real party of working people yesterday, while dodging his cuts to tax credit and devastating job losses in Redcar.

And he revealed plans to devolve business rates and “phase out” grants to local authorities — severely hampering redistribution of wealth across the country.

“We all want more decisions to be made locally. But by devolving business rates without any national safeguards, regional inequalities will get wider,” warned TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady.

“The communities that most need investment are often those with the weakest business revenue base, so it is vital that the Treasury retains a significant role in regional economic development.”

The shameless Chancellor used his conference speech to lay claim to Labour’s historic mission and lure defectors from the party’s right.

Mr Osborne said he understood the “reservations” about his cuts but insisted that they were needed to prevent instability that would cause “economic cruelty” for working people.

“We’re now the party of work, the only true party of labour,” he told Tory conference.

But the Chancellor found time for just a fleeting reference to his cuts to tax credits that will cost working families £1,300 a year.

“We simply can’t subsidise incomes with ever-higher welfare and tax credit bills the country can’t afford,” he said.

Unite general secretary Len McCluskey said the speech marked Mr Osborne’s transition from the “snake oil salesman of British politicsto the hammer of working people.”

“He has made a deliberate choice to make millions of working people over £1,000 worse off, while a few thousand millionaires get to hold onto their wealth,” said Mr McCluskey.

“This was a choice based on political and class dogma, and not economic necessity.”

In a 30-minute speech, Mr Osborne also failed to say anything at all about the 1,700 steelworkers facing redundancy in Redcar.

Shadow chancellor John McDonnell said it was typical of a “Tory Chancellor who doesn’t live in the real world.”

Speaking after a visit to Redcar, Mr McDonnell said: “He spoke of slaying dragons more than he spoke of how working people in the north-east, who feel abandoned by this Tory government, are seeing their industry and way of life under attack.”

The Chancellor’s speech was also overshadowed by a growing rebellion against tax credit cuts on the Tory back benches.

After former minister David Willetts condemned the cut on Sunday, David Davis warned yesterday the policy could spark a poll tax-style backlash.

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt was condemned after botching his bid to defend the cut.

He said slashing tax credits are a “very important cultural signal” that would make British people realise that they needed to “work hard in the way that Asian economies are prepared to work hard.”