After insisting that her appointment in no way represented a ‘lurch to the left’ at the weekend by repeating the policy pronouncements that her predecessor was allowed to come out with, Rachel Reeves pitched up at DWP questions today with the same strategy that Liam Byrne had employed when taking on the Tories on welfare. The new shadow Work and Pensions secretary decided to focus not on who was the toughest on welfare, but on the delivery questions that had occupied Byrne towards the end of his tenure. When it came to her turn at topical questions, she rose and said:
‘We on this side of the House support the principle of universal credit but we’ve repeatedly raised questions about the Secretary of State’s ability to deliver. Since 2011 the Secretary of State has consistently promised that one million people will be claiming universal credit by April 2014. Can he now tell the House how many people he actually expects to be claiming Universal Credit by then and whether he will proceed with the previously announced plans to close down new claims for tax credits by that date?’
In response Mr Duncan Smith insisted that the roll-out would take place according to the timetable and that ‘many’ claimants would start on UC.
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