This is the last article you can read this month
You can read more article this month
You can read more articles this month
Sorry your limit is up for this month
Reset on:
Please help support the Morning Star by subscribing here
TORY ministers were accused of a “deliberate act of deception” yesterday after claiming plans to roll out the universal credit (UC) benefit had Treasury support.
Prime Minister David Cameron and Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith both faced awkward questions in the Commons.
In a blistering attack across the dispatch box, shadow welfare reform minister Chris Bryant said the pair “misled” Parliament over whether the Treasury had approved their business case for UC.
Mr Cameron had said the budget for the scheme was signed-off annually by the Treasury.
But Mr Bryant said: “It’s depressing that this Tory minister and the Tory Prime Minister can’t tell the difference between an annual budget and a business case — it’s pretty straightforward.
“The same simple question has now been answered eight contradictory ways — not everybody can be telling the truth.
“There has been so much beating about the bush that it feels as if this house has been misled by a government engaged in a deliberate act of deception.”
Tory backbenchers cried out for speaker John Bercow to demand that former church minister Mr Bryant repent for his cutting remarks.
Unmoved Mr Bercow said the whole government was not to blame but insisted Mr Brant “made no personal attack.”
After labeling Mr Bryant’s speech “pompous,” Mr Duncan Smith finally admitted in response that the UC business plan is “in discussion and we expect approval of that plan shortly.”
The row was sparked on Monday after Civil Service chief Bob Kerslake set the record straight about Tory claims that the plan had already been signed-off.
