Treasury Questions was a little quieter than usual today: George Osborne is away and so Ed Balls left the questions to his colleague Chris Leslie. The Shadow Chancellor didn’t say entirely quiet, though, gradually turning a warm shade of pink as he barracked away while perched on the opposition front bench. Labour landed very few blows today: Rachel Reeves continued the attack on the EU budget, Leslie tried rather ineffectually to talk about borrowing, and backbenchers made a few grumbles. The two really interesting questions came from the coalition benches: and more specifically, from two sacked ministers.
Tim Loughton, who is fast establishing himself post-reshuffle as an effective campaigning backbencher specialising in children’s issues, told Danny Alexander he was worried about a plan floated by David Cameron and George Osborne to scrap housing benefit payments for under-25s. He asked:
‘Anne Marie Carrie, the excellent head of Barnardo’s, recently said that the proposal to remove housing benefit from all under-25s ‘is reckless and unfair as it will leave some of this country’s most vulnerable people stranded’.
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