Bradford MPs happy about temporary reprieve on tax credits
Announcements by the Chancellor in his autumn spending review are good news for Bradford, at least in the short term, said its two parliamentary representatives.
Naz Shah and Imran Hussain both saw George Osborne’s u-turn on cutting tax credits as a victory but said it was too premature to start celebrating.
“It’s not the full and fair reversal than we wanted to see but it still goes a long way. It is a victory for the Labour Party but I’ve still got issues with it because when people are switched from the current tax credits to University Credit they will be affected,” said Bradford West MP Naz Shah.
Bradford East MP Imran Hussain said that under pressure from the Labour Party, Mr Osborne had “finally” u-turned on his plans to cut tax credits.
“I am glad that he has done so as the cuts would have devastated the lives of thousands of people in Bradford who rely upon them to get by. However this move is still part of the Chancellor’s snide political games that he plays on the poorest in society, as he will still impose untold paid on essential services and working people, covered under the PR smokescreen of his U-turn, through slashing the spending in vital government departments.”
Mr Hussain said that the Chancellor’s statement betrayed the fact that average earnings will be down next year and every year until 2020.
“He has failed on his own terms of eradicating the deficit as borrowing is still set to be £73.5 billion this year, and that it is still the clear intention of this government to pursue austerity, not because of economic necessity, but because of an ideological, political choice.
“Over the next few days, weeks and months, I and the rest of the Labour Party will be taking apart the Chancellor’s figures and claims, we will be exposing the U-turn for the smokescreen that it is, and we will be holding him to task for his economic failures which have already caused substantial damage to Bradford, to its economy, to its education, and to the people that live here.”
The Chancellor also announced £2.3 billion investment to create 400,000 affordable homes starting in 2020 but Ms Shah said that the qualifying salaries for social housing made them unaffordable.
