Feryal Clark MP calls on Government to Cancel the Cut

Today Labour is giving Conservative MPs the chance to do the right thing, stand up to the Prime Minister and defend their constituents from the devastating plans to cut Universal Credit by £20 a week.

Here in Enfield North, the cut would put the 14,350 UC claimant households, who are already incredibly vulnerable, into serious hardship.

Of those households claiming UC in Enfield North, over 10,000 include children, meaning whole families will suffer as a result of this cruel decision.

There are also over 5,000 UC claimants in Enfield North who are in work, many of whom in key worker roles such as health and social care, that will be hit with not only this cut, but an unfair National Insurance hike as well.

Making the biggest ever overnight cut to social security would be wrong for these families in Enfield North and wrong for the UK economy.

It is shameful that those front-line workers who got us through this crisis are in the firing line for a £1,000 cut to their income every year.

This £20 is what enables some families to put food on the table at the end of the week.

There is now near-universal opposition to these plans. Labour, the public, the House of Commons, dozens of charities and campaign groups and now, the 6 predecessors as Conservative Work and Pensions Secretaries of State all agree that this money must remain in place.

We know the extra £20 is spent in shops and restaurants on our high streets. Taking that money out of our economy when an economic recovery is not fully established just does not make sense.

The Government is trying to make low-income families pay as a result of their chronic mismanagement of the pandemic and the economic recovery.

When the Prime Minister tries to make this a decision between keeping the uplift or getting people in work, he is ignorant that Universal Credit is an in-work benefit.

Cutting incomes now shows the Tories simply don’t understand the realities of working people’s lives, and it is imperative that the £20 uplift remains in place until Universal Credit is finally replaced.

Today, all MPs have the chance to do the right thing for their constituents and vote to Cancel the Cut.