“He’s blown it”: Tory MPs slam “painful” Osborne speech

Backbench Tory MPs are privately despairing at George Osborne’s speech to Tory Conference yesterday. The Chancellor’s announcement that he plans to freeze all benefits for working-age people, amounting to a real-terms cut, has dismayed Conservative’s who are concerned with their party’s image among the working class.

According to today’s Times (£), Tory MPs are unhappy that in-work benefits will be hit as hard as jobseeker’s allowance, sending out a message that it doesn’t pay to work.

The Times reports:

A Tory MP with a seat in the north of England said that the welfare announcement “looks like discrimination against the north and is the end of the C2 [blue-collar] vote”. The MP added: “To do it with no optimism is extraordinary. What happened to ‘making work pay’? He’s blown it.”

An MP in a marginal Conservative seat in the Midlands said: “That will be painful for some of our voters.” Another, representing a London constitiuency, added: “George has bet those people wouldn’t vote for us anyway… Where I would worry is public-sector voters in the cities, in London. They need to feel connected.”

With another defection to UKIP this morning, and would-be leader Boris Johnson making his speech to Conference this afternoon, the last thing David Cameron needs is a backbench revolt against his welfare policies.

LabourList’s Mark Ferguson will be at Conservative Conference for the final two days, so we’ll keep an ear out for any more disgruntled Tories.