The Tories are trying to pull the same old trick, and they’re shocked we’re daring to scrutinise them

Jon Ashworth

George Osborne 2015

The Tories are shocked, shocked, to find there’s scrutiny of their plans going on in here.

Let me take you back five years – to before the last election.

Looking at the Tories’ plans, it was clear that they were going to cut families’ tax credits if they won – their figures didn’t add up without it. So we took out some adverts on Mumsnet to tell people.

But the Tories were shocked. They even paid for adverts of their own to accuse us of lying.

Zoom forward to their first budget and – who’d have thought? – they cut tax credits exactly as Labour warned they would.

Now, they’re trying to pull the same trick all over again.

Once you take the Tories’ unfunded promises, unfunded tax cuts, protected department and rises in pensions and capital spending into account their plan are clear. Not only will they raise VAT and break their promise not to cut the NHS – they’ll cut tax credits and child benefit. So we’ve taken out ads on Mumsnet again:

Tax Credits will be cut: families with one child earning £23,000 will lose £1,600 a year. Child Benefit will be cut: 4.3 million families will lose over £1,000 a year.

VAT will rise again: five million couples with children will pay an additional £360 a year.

The Tories’ plan has failed working families for five years. Another five years would make families even worse off.

We’ve got a better plan – because we understand that Britain only succeeds when working people succeed.

Find out about it here.

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