Labour vote to the Tories’ benefit

Labour has just marched into the trap that George Osborne set them and voted against the benefits cap — again. As one gleeful Tory says, ‘we’re going to make sure everyone in the country knows how they voted on this.’
 
I suspect that in every Labour-held marginal that the Tories need to win to get a majority in 2015 the benefit cap will feature prominently on Tory literature. Labour MPs will be faced with the unenviable task of explaining why an able-bodied household where no one works should receive more in benefits than the average wage.
 
The cap chimes with the public’s sense of fairness — as the huge support for it shows. I’m told that in Tory focus groups, voters can’t quite believe that Labour is not in favour of it.
 
This policy is the Tories’ best weapon in their attempt to redefine fairness, to stop it being seen as just redistribution.