You could be forgiven for believing this Chancellor is more sympathetic towards benefit claimants than his predecessor. While George Osborne used arbitrary cuts to the welfare budget as an ideological weapon against the state, hitting the most vulnerable, the current government has changed the rhetoric about those who have the least.
Who could forget the fawning over Theresa May’s first statement as Prime Minister by even the most progressive corners of the press? Her claim outside No 10 that she is “squarely at the service of ordinary working-class people” – and the dedication of her speech to those who “can just about manage but […] worry about the cost of living” – led to excitable cries of One Nation, blue-collar Toryism and even Milibandism.
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