Osborne Urges Labour MPs To Back Welfare Cuts

George Osborne has urged "progressive" Labour MPs to vote in favour of his welfare cuts, saying a majority of the party's voters thinks the UK pays too much in benefits.

Ahead of a vote tonight on the measures unveiled in the Budget , the Chancellor said the party had to stop blaming voters for its election defeat and realise the public supported welfare changes.

And he accused the interim leader Harriet Harman of bowing to pressure from the unions and changing her position on supporting Mr Osborne's stringent measures.

There has been a significant divide in Labour over how to respond to the welfare changes, which will lower the welfare cap and restrict the payment of tax credits to the first two children in a family.

Ms Harman had called on Labour MPs to abstain in the vote and urged against "blanket opposition" backing the changes on tax credits.

However, after Labour backbenchers tabled their own amendment to the Welfare Bill and her stance was not backed by three of the party's leadership contenders, Ms Harman was forced into a partial retreat.

There will now be an amendment setting out the parts of the bill the Labour party does not agree with.

Writing in The Guardian newspaper, Mr Osborne said: "Three in four people – and a majority of Labour voters – think that Britain spends too much on welfare.

"For our social contract to work, we need to retain the consent of the taxpayer, not just the welfare recipient."

He added: "Harriet Harman indicated that she would support at least some of our reforms. She recognised that oppositions only advance when they stop blaming the public for their defeat and recognise that some of the arguments made by political opponents should be listened to."

Mr Osborne wrote that Ms Harman had retreated from her "sensible position" after the Unite union leader Len McCluskey accused her of "running up the white flag".

He said: "I urge moderate Labour MPs not to make the same mistake as in the last parliament, when they refused to support each and every welfare reform we proposed. I say: vote with us today."