The former prime minister has warned of nationwide uprising if the government fails to increase benefits in line with inflation.
Gordon Brown is the latest high-profile figure to enter the row about the uprating of welfare benefits, as the prime minister and the chancellor refuse to rule out real-term cuts to benefit payments.
Appearing on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme this week, Brown said not increasing benefits aligned with inflation would be “immoral”, “unfair” and “unequal.”
“It’s divisive because we’re not in this together anymore. It’s anti-work because 40% of those who would suffer are people on low pay in work. It’s anti-family because five million children would be in poverty.
“And I think most of all, it’s immoral. It’s asking the poor to bear the burden for the crisis that we face in this country and for mistakes that other people have made, and it’s a scar on the soul of our country, it’s a stain on our conscience,” said the former Labour PM and chancellor.
‘National uprising’
He went even further, saying that if the cuts went ahead, there would be a “national uprising” because it has nothing to do with the growth policies of the government, and is “simply making the poor pay the price.”
Condemning the mini budget, Brown warned that people should expect further financial crises, alluding to the billion of pounds given away to the already wealthy which could be used to pay for benefits and to “stop the health service being starved of resources that it needs.”
Joining calls for benefits to be in line with soaring inflation rates is Penny Mordaunt, the most high-profile member of Liz Truss’s top team to back the calls.
Talking to Times Radio, the leader of the Commons said she supported ‘benefits keeping pace’ with inflation. She said the government should not “try and help people with one hand and take away with another.”
Mordaunt’s opposition is shared by a number of cabinet ministers, including work and pensions secretary Chloe Smith, Damian Green and Ester McVey, who have all categorically opposed the measure.
The prime minister is believed to have been determined to raise benefits in-line with wages rather than inflation, a move that would save the government £5bn a year but would break a promise made by Boris Johnson that the benefits uplift would be linked in inflation in 2022.
However, it has emerged that Truss is expected to cave in to pressure from her cabinet and increase welfare benefits in line with inflation. According to a report in the Sunday Times, ministers are preparing to ambush the PM at a cabinet meeting on Tuesday, and demand that raising benefits so they are aligned with earnings, which would result in a real-terms cut, is ruled out.
Gabrielle Pickard-Whitehead is a contributing editor to Left Foot Forward
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