So much for the centre ground of politics having shifted irrevocably to the right
Chancellor George Osborne will make £12bn in welfare cuts a central plank of his budget speech later today. Despite it being reported this morning that the chancellor plans to ‘slow’ the pace of the cuts, he is hardly taking his foot off the gas – the cuts will simply be carried out over three years instead of two.
The scale and pace of the cuts remain unprecedented. We know at present that Osborne is planning to: lower the benefit cap of £23,000 in London and lower it further in the rest of the country; remove tax credits from around 3.7million working families; disqualify most 18- to 21-year-olds from claiming housing benefit; and freeze the level of working-age benefits for two years from next April.
The scale of the changes will leave the welfare state growing at its slowest pace since 1948 – quite something considering the speed at which Britain’s population is ageing (and is therefore more reliant on social security in some form).
Leave aside for a moment arguments over the morality of taking money away from those with little of it already – all the while cutting inheritance tax for the top 6 per cent (only the top 6 per cent actually pay inheritance tax) – there is a myth doing the rounds that cuts to welfare of this scale are wildly popular.
If Labour leadership contenders start opposing the the benefits cap cut to £23k in London + SE and £20k elsewhere, Osborne will be in clover
— James Forsyth (@JGForsyth) July 8, 2015
That’s the Spectator’s James Forsyth, who is by no means exceptional in assuming that it’s a vote winner to bash those on benefits.
Yet a ComRes poll for the Daily Mail, out this morning, reveals the opposite. According to this, six in ten (57 per cent) of Britons oppose the potential £12 billion cuts to welfare spending. And it’s supported by just half (52 per cent) of Conservative supporters, with 43 per cent opposed to it. Just a quarter (24 per cent) of Labour supporters back the cuts.
Meanwhile, according to the same poll, the proposed tax cut for top rate tax payers is the least popular of Osborne’s policies; just a third (33 per cent) of Britons polled say they support cutting the rate from 45p to 40p for those earning over £150,000. Six in ten (61 per cent) oppose the tax cut – even among Conservative supporters 57 per cent are opposed.
As for an inheritance tax cut, slightly over half (53 per cent) support increasing the inheritance tax threshold while 39 per cent oppose it. And raising the threshold for the 20p rate of income tax would be supported by eight in ten (80 per cent) of Britons.
So much, then, for the centre ground of politics having shifted irrevocably to the right.
James Bloodworth is the editor of Left Foot Forward. Follow him on Twitter
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16 Responses to “Budget: The myth that Osborne’s welfare cuts are wildly popular”
treborc
They do seem to be accepted the Tory ideology, Reeves will be jumping up and down in temper that labour and her in particular did not get a change to cut and cut hard, but better the devil you know
People may say the middle class are for fairnewss but only after they have what they want
Matt Booth
The problem is that in the last 5 year we’ve had this horrendous assault on people in this country.
You see it all over the internet on various websites, including this one, of very right wing people buying the official line hook, line and sinker.
From people suggesting that since they paid for their own University education, everyone should have to (ignoring the fact that they were priviledged to have been able to do so.).
People suggesting those on benefits can simply unpoor themselves through the magic of “hard work” ignoring that most of those on benefits are either infirm, elderly or actually working, but not being able to earn enough. But, to these people, anyone on benefits is a feckless twat who should try harder.
So when these rounds of cuts come, and they say “we’re reducing tax credits” they fucking cheer like apes, ignoring the fact that it does not mean what they think it means. They think it means someone who doesn’t work is going to get the boot up their arse, when really it’s a family with over £1200 less a year to work with.
They wanted to make work pay, but now people are worse off. A friend of mine will now be £1200 a year worse off. She is a single parent, 3 kids, and works 16 hours a week. If she works more and earns more, she becomes worse off. If she earned another £1000 a year, she’d end up £1600 a year worse off! How does this make any sense?
JAMES MCGIBBON
It does not help when those idiots go on the TV and flaunt themselve almost boasting about their benefits. How do you think joe bloggs that gets out of his scratcher every morning and goes to work feels about it. When Duncan Smith came to Glasgow Easterhouse years ago it set him of on a mission.
JAMES MCGIBBON
It was not a fluke at all. Milliband fucked up with his tablet of stone. What a cringe it reminded me of Kinnock. And you the had the pretend leftie SNP being obsessed with welfare and demanding more from the taxpayer. It was a foregone conclusion the Tories would win.
JarrowPete
So did you bet your mortgage on it then?