22.09.14
Balls-ing up benefits
Ed Balls is to tell the Labour Party’s annual conference in Manchester he intends to extend the current 1% cap on increases to child benefit, which is expected to end in 2016, for another year.
The shadow chancellor’s plans would mean a further fall in real-term value for families receiving the benefit, during the first two years of a Labour government.
It is also peculiar for the Labour party to make this type of manifesto ‘cuts’ promise ahead of the general election, especially as the party has repeatedly criticised the coalition government’s benefit cuts.
However, Balls, who now is appearing to resemble the party’s harsh manifesto bulldozer in comparison to the whiter-than-white leader Ed Miliband, claims the move must be made to help ‘balance the books’, and highlights the party’s seriousness on tackling the issue.
But this move has left Balls, and the party, open for a few political bruises on welfare – something the shadow chancellor dished out very recently during a politicians v journalists football match.
(Image: c. Peter Byrne/PA Wire)
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