They may have faded from the front pages, but middle class benefits are still one of the
most important stories in town. What we are witnessing here could be the birth of this Parliament’s defining dividing line – a cuts vs investment for the new decade.
In truth, the birthing process began before the election, with this Ed Miliband interview in the Guardian. In it, he made a distinction between a “residual welfare state that is just for the poor, which is the Tory position,” and a “more inclusive welfare state” that encompasses the middle classes. His point was that the former goes against “all the evidence of maintaining public support [for the welfare state]” and, ergo, the Tories have got this wrong.
Ed Balls has since borrowed that argument, but you know Labour are dead-set on using it when David Miliband – ostensibly the most “right-wing” candidate – joins the protest against middle class benefit cuts.
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