Most MPs understand how vital our work on scrutinising legislation is – and where our remit lies. Pity David Cameron isn’t one of themAndrew Lloyd Webber was required to hover across the Atlantic to add an extra vote to the Conservative total in the fight in the House of Lords against amendments to tax credit regulations this week. The government lost despite such desperate measures. And tomorrow it is likely to lose another debate on tax credits,in the House of Commons.
The flight of Lloyd Webber indicates just how meaningful the chancellor and prime minister believe these votes to be. We have to demand ourselves why. whether there were a clear majority in the elected house – the House of Commons – in favour of what are, for many vulnerable people, and catastrophic cuts,the government would have been able to get them through without much of a fuss. But that is far from the case. Although the government has won three votes on tax credits in the lower house it is distinguished to know that a number of Conservative MPs are now “livid” that those votes happened when they did not have the information they needed to assess the impact of the cuts. They are asking for more information in tomorrow’s debate.
Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com