Benefitting the Tories

The longer the row over the benefit cap goes on, the better it will be for the Tories. The cap chimes with the public’s sense of fairness. Polls show massive public support for capping benefits at £26,000 a year for non-working households (the cap won’t apply to the disabled or war widows), and if Labour oppose it, they’ll be handing the Tories a stick with which to beat them. Chris Grayling has already declared that tonight’s vote in the Lords is ‘a test of Ed Miliband’s leadership’.

Those who argue that the cap isn’t fair because it will force people to move out of their house are missing the point. It can’t be right that people who live solely on benefits are able to raise a family in a more expensive home than those who are working hard for a living.

P.S. One other development on the benefit cap front worth noting this morning is Danny Alexander’s PPS Gordon Birtwistle calling