According to popular wisdom on the left — and even among some in the Conservative party — this ought to have been a tough week for the government. On Monday, the new £26,000 cap on benefits came into effect and with it a new principle: that no one on welfare should receive more than the average working family. Such a move, it was said, would expose the Conservatives to what is supposed to be their weak point: that they are the ‘nasty party’ who care about money, not people.
Yet something remarkable has happened. Iain Duncan Smith’s welfare cap is turning out to be not just the boldest but the most popular reform undertaken by this government. Rather than being punished in the opinion polls, the Tories appear to have been rewarded: the latest ICM survey puts them on a level pegging with Labour. A YouGov poll finds that 79 per cent favour the latest welfare reform.
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