IT’S a shame that Tory MP Chris Green didn’t listen to the “points being made” by his constituents before he voted in favour of cuts to tax credits which would make working families up to £1300 a year worse off.

Changes have already been made during the last Parliament which reduced the number of people eligible to claim tax credits so it’s a nonsense for Mr Green to say MPs are able to claim them. These proposed cuts will hit many of the poorest workers hardest – people who are “doing the right thing” and going to work to try to make life better for them and their children. Working people were already on average £1,600 worse off after the last five years of the Tory-led coalition, so these changes will be devastating to many.

Of course we want people to be paid enough so that they would not need to claim tax credits, but even the proposed increases to the minimum wage, laughingly called a “Living Wage” by George Osborne, will still not achieve the real level of the income necessary for people to live without getting support.

Rather than introducing a Bill to make the changes, the Government tried to sneak them through using a “Statutory Instrument” which meant there was only 90 minutes of debate in the Commons, but their trick backfired because this gave the House of Lords the right to vote down the measure.

Instead of giving tax cuts to the rich and allowing big business to avoid paying taxes, the Tories should stop trying to balance the books on the backs of the poor.

Julie Hilling

Bolton West