George OSBORNE has been accused of patronising stay-at-home mothers and helping the rich after unveiling plans to give working couples earning up to £300,000-a-year help with childcare costs.

The Chancellor was forced to deny claims single-earner families would be paying for tax cuts for the very well-off under his plans.

He was also accused of ­discriminating against parents who look after their children by only offering the tax breaks to families where both parents work.

Mr Osborne said he had respect for mothers who stay at home.

He said that, to help them, he would bring forward proposals on married couples' tax breaks in his Autumn statement later this year.

However, he outraged many by describing their decision as being for "lifestyle reasons". Critics accused the Chancellor of being ­"pejorative and patronising".

Laura Perrins, from campaign group Mothers at Home Matter, said: "Staying at home is not a luxury, it's not a hobby. Women who choose to stay at home make huge sacrifices."

There was also ­criticism, even from within Mr Osborne's own party, of the decision to give the tax break to high earners.

Tory MP Nick de Bois criticised "the idea these benefits may apply to extremely high earners, the top 1% in the country."

Downing Street defended the move, saying it made sense within the current tax system and helped avoid "red tape and bureaucracy".

However, opponents accused the Coalition of being inconsistent. Last year ministers stripped child benefit payments from those earning more than £60,000 a year.

Under the proposals, couples will be given tax breaks worth £1200 a child. The help will come in the form of vouchers which will effectively allow parents to avoid paying tax on the money they use to pay for childcare. However, the help will not be introduced until 2015, after the next General Election.

Mr Osborne said: "It will help those on tight family budgets who have to weigh up the cost of childcare when they are making difficult lifestyle decisions."

"The vast majority, and I use the word vast to include virtually everyone who is going to benefit from this, are people on low and middle working incomes".

Ministers believe the initiative will eventually help 2.5 million households. However, Labour said many families with two children had already lost up to £1500 in childcare tax credit.

Poorer households will be given help under a different scheme where ministers will pay the bulk of childcare costs for those on the soon-to-be-introduced Universal Credit benefits system.

The Resolution Foundation thinktank, which campaigns for low-income workers, warned most of that money would not go to the most needy households.

The thinktank's deputy chief executive Vidhya Alakeson said: "Only a tiny fraction of the new money will benefit the lowest-income working families. Just 160,000 families in the bottom 40% of the income distribution will qualify for extra help, compared to 1.7 million in the top 40% by income.

"Within universal credit, support will only go to higher income households.

"More than 900,000 working families with children who will receive Universal Credit will be excluded from extra childcare support as they do not earn enough to pay income tax. These are families where at least one parent is in low-paid, part-time work.

"It's crucial that the ­Government adapts its scheme to help the poorest working families."

l The leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats, Willie Rennie, led a summit on nursery education before a renewed push for an expansion of early-years provision. The party wants to introduce 570 hours of free childcare a year for 40% of two-year-olds, matching the level in England from next month. UK Education Minister David Laws attended the Scottish Parliament summit to share his experience of expanding nursery education.