Frank Field: Tory MPs share Labour’s concerns on cutting tax credits

The government will push forward with its plans to cut £6 billion in tax credits today and the Commons vote is one that will split both parties. Many Conservative MPs are privately worried about how the party will be viewed for slashing tax credits — even if they agree with it in principle — while some in Labour are worried they will once again be seen as the party who are unwilling to reform welfare.

Frank Field, the veteran Labour MP who was asked by Tony Blair to ‘think the unthinkable on welfare’, said on the Today programme that slashing tax credits could harm the Tories’ image as the party of ‘strivers’:

‘In the long run up to the general election and after the general election, the Chancellor said the Tory party were the party of strivers and we were the party of welfare. And what’s amazing for me is that I don’t think we’ve had a more astute political chancellor in my lifetime and yet by centring the biggest cuts of all on tax credits, he actually blows up that image about the Tory party as the party of strivers.