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[/audioplayer]Chris Leslie has just briefed journalists on Labour’s response to the Budget. In summary, it’s all quite difficult. Leslie repeatedly used that word when asked about individual measures such as the benefit cap and public sector pay, while also saying that Labour didn’t want to be a knee-jerk opposition which opposed everything.
The key themes of the Labour response are that the changes to tax credits represent what the Shadow Chancellor deems a ‘work penalty’. His calculations are that a lone parent with two children working 16 hours a week on the minimum wage would gain £400 from the move to a living wage, but would lose £860 from the changes to tax credits. A couple who were both on the minimum wage full time and had two children would lose over £2,200 next year from the tax credit changes, but gain £1,560 from the living wage change.
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