In spite of trying to make sure that all the millionaires sitting in the House of Lords were there to ratify the Conservative bill that would have cut the incomes of some of the poorest 3m people by an average of £1,300/year, the Lords saved the day and voted against it.
The winning motion means that the bill should not be implemented until the blow can be softened for the most damaged by it. The (somehow anachronic) House of Lords did what is meant to do: it acted as a review chamber and sent back the legislation to the Commons to improve it. But George Osborne, the Chancellor of the Exchequer shouted “Constitutional crisis!” and a review of the Lords (with more Conservative appointments) is likely to follow.
The offending bill dealing with the withdrawal of Tax Credits, narrowly passed in the House of Commons, has been heavily criticised not only by Labour’s Leader Jeremy Corbyn but also by many Conservatives.
Corbyn said to PM David Cameron “The reality is people in work often do rely on tax credits to make ends meet. Your party and yourself have put forward a budget which cuts tax credits, gives tax breaks to the very wealthiest in our society, so inequality is getting worse not better.”
Musical millionaire empresario Andrew Lloyd-Webber hurried from the US to his seat in the Lords in order to rescue the bill, supported also by other famous millionaires who voted with the government, including Tim Bell, Sebastian Coe, Maurice Saatchi, Julian Fellowes, Anthony Bamford and many others who could not be further from the economic realities created by draconian austerity for the most vulnerable in society. They failed but George Osborn is sticking to his guns.
The proposed changes to Tax Credits are expected to save £4.4bn in 2016/17. Not going ahead with the renewal of Trident, UK’s (useless, unethical and unaffordable) nuclear missiles system would save £100 billion. It looks like a no-brainer but perhaps that is precisely the problem…
