GEORGE Osborne tried to drive through cuts to tax credits despite repeated advance warnings by Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson that families north of the border faced a financial "cliff edge", it has been claimed.
Tory MSP Alex Johnstone, a member of Holyrood's Welfare Reform Committee, said Ms Davidson raised concerns about tax credit cuts during monthly political strategy meetings with the Conservative cabinet.
Ms Davidson also raised concerns about the Chancellor's plans at the Conservative Party conference earlier this month, a party spokesman confirmed.
The Chancellor has been forced to soften the blow for claimants hit by the reforms following a controversial breach of convention by the House of Lords, who backed motions to delay the cuts and provide transitional protection for claimants on Monday night.
Before the vote, Ms Davidson told the Mail On Sunday that the cuts were necessary but needed to be introduced more carefully.
"The idea that there's a cliff edge in April before the uptake in wages comes in is a real practical human problem and the Government needs to look again at it," she said.
On Tuesday, Mr Johnstone said: "She was concerned about that and she was the one who first raised the problem with the Chancellor from a Scottish perspective.
"I think it's important that we remember that we all need to work together the ensure that the policy applies appropriately across the country.
"With a limited representation of Scottish members of parliament in Westminster, the Chancellor perhaps didn't have that opportunity as early as he could.
"But Ruth Davidson attends (political) cabinet meetings on a monthly basis, and she took the opportunity to make sure he knew."
He added: "I think it is time for the Chancellor to consider how he implements this policy.
"Tax credits, while they have become valuable to many people, are a failed policy as a fiscal measure and we need to stop it being a subsidy for low wages."
SNP deputy leader Stewart Hosie described the tax credit cuts as "a daft idea".
"I'm not surprised that a Tory wants to take money from poor people - that is of course what the Tories do," he said.
"These cuts to tax credits are unnecessary.
"They are driven solely by George Osborne and the Tory Government's intention to cut £40 billion from the current account more than is necessary to run a balanced economy.
"That's why this is ideologically driven, it's dangerous for working families and simply wrong.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel