Appearing at Treasury questions in the Commons, Ed Balls has just confirmed that Labour will vote against the government’s Welfare Uprating Bill, which would cap benefit increases at 1 per cent for the next three years. “If he [George Osborne] intends to go ahead with such an unfair hit on mid-and lower-income working families, while he’s giving a £3bn top rate tax cut, we will oppose it, Mr Speaker,” Balls said. In response, Osborne declared that Labour would have to explain “to the hard-working people of this country” why it planned to oppose “yet another measure to deal with the deficit”.
It is Osborne who starts with the advantage. A YouGov poll at the weekend found that 33 per cent of voters think it was right to limit increases in benefits to 1 per cent, 19 per cent think the government should have gone further and frozen them completely, and 35 per cent think they should have been increased in line with inflation or more.
But Labour believes the Chancellor has miscalculated by announcing a measure that will largely fall on working households. Sixty per cent of those families affected are in work and, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies, the average one earner couple will be £534 a year worse off by 2015. Expect Labour to also constantly remind the public that Osborne is simultaneously reducing the top rate of income tax from 50p to 45p, a measure that will benefit the average income-millionaire by £107,000. One challenge for the party, however, will be explaining why it opposes a 1 per cent cap on benefit increases but supports a 1 per cent cap on public sector pay.
In an eventful session, Osborne also announced that the 2013 Budget will be held on 20 March.
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