GEORGE Osborne failed to appear in the Commons yesterday to defend his Budget days after Iain Duncan Smith quit in protest over Government plans to further cut disability benefits.
The Chancellor was absent as MPs heard the Budget process “was in absolute chaos” and he should withdraw it and “start all over again”.
Osborne was forced to do a U-turn over the £4.4 billion of cuts to Personal Independence Payments following the former Work and Pensions Secretary’s dramatic resignation on Friday, saying the move, which had been planned alongside tax cuts for the better-off, risked “dividing society”.
Opposition MPs shouted “Where is he?” and “frit” as Treasury Minister David Gauke stood in for the Chancellor to reply to an urgent question from Labour’s John McDonnell.
“The Budget process is in absolute chaos,” said the Shadow Chancellor.
“It is unprecedented for a Government to have withdrawn a large part of its Budget and accepted two opposition amendments before we’ve even reached the third day.”
However, there was criticism too of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn’s performance in failing to hold the Government to account when he did not mention Iain Duncan Smith when he addressed MPs.
While poking fun at the absence of the Chancellor, he did not refer to the reason – the Work and Pensions’ Secretary’s resignation – which had precipitated his party’s urgent question.
Gerry Hassan, the Scottish political writer, wrote on Twitter: “Today was a low point for Labour & #Corbyn. Reminiscent of Kinnock, Thatcher & Westland. Another Tory PM let off.”
Lord Ashcroft, the Tory peer, who last year published a biography of the Prime Minister, also took to Twitter.
“In the House of Commons today facing Cameron the Opposition Leader with an open goal didn’t just miss the net he missed the ball,” he wrote.
In the chamber Stewart Hosie, the SNP’s economy spokesperson and deputy leader, called for the Tories to schedule a summer budget to deal with the situation.
“We are witnessing another Osborne budget unravelling and yet all we are getting today from the Government is a quick statement and that is not good enough,” he said.
“Such is the mess in the Treasury’s plans and the civil war within the Tory party that the Government needs to be looking seriously at a corrective budget to sort out this shambles.”
Gauke said the Chancellor would appear in the chamber this evening and defended the Government’s economic record after insisting MPs will have three opportunities to discuss the various changes before voting on the Budget.
He said: “In terms of disability benefits, there is no question of this Government cutting disability benefits back to the level we inherited in 2010.
“Spending has gone up by £3 billion in real terms on disability benefits.” He added: “Does the Shadow Chancellor really want to talk about fiscal blackholes? Does he really want to do that?
“Last week, the Chancellor of the Exchequer reported on an economy set to grow faster than any other major advanced economy in the world, wages up, the deficit cut by almost two thirds, a thousand more people in work every single day. Our economic plan is delivering for Britain.
“It’s a Budget that continues this economic recovery, a Budget that takes us into surplus by the end of this Parliament, a Budget that backs British businesses, protecting jobs in difficult economic times.”
Gauke continued his defence of the Budget and the Government, prompting Commons Speaker John Bercow to intervene and calm opposition MPs as they shouted in protest.
Later in the session, the Prime Minister in a Commons statement insisted he led “a modern, compassionate, One Nation Conservative Government.”
David Cameron gave his full backing to his Chancellor, saying he had “turned the economy around” and vowed there would be no let-up in the Government’s drive to bring the welfare bill under control.
He addressed Duncan Smith’s accusations that the welfare budget had been “salami-sliced” and praised his former minister’s record despite “difficult decisions on the deficit”.
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