David Cameron will hit the roof because he insists the hated measure is called the spare room subsidy to make it sound less cruel
Bungling Lord Freud has put his foot in his mouth again to become the first
Tory minister to call the Bedroom Tax “the
Bedroom Tax”, the Sunday People can reveal.
His leader David Cameron will hit the roof because he insists the hated measure is called the spare room subsidy – to make it sound less cruel.
The PM’s anger will be even fiercer as Freud is the welfare minister in charge of the Bedroom Tax in the House of Lords.
His latest blip comes just days after the Sunday People reported his Freudian slip when he attempted to blame local authorities for a lack of one-bedroom properties.
Lord Freud’s gaffe came just minutes after he mocked another peer for using the term.
He told Labour’s Baroness Hollis: “I must make the point that while the party opposite likes to use the expression “Bedroom Tax” it is deeply misleading.
"A tax is when you take away money people earn. We are limiting the amount of money that the taxpayer pays to people.”
Shadow work and pensions minister Maeve Sherlock suggested ministers were now referring to the spare-room subsidy as “Lord Freud’s idea” to distance themselves from it.
She added: “Would the minister like to take this opportunity to rebut that outrageous slur?” Lord Freud replied: “A good idea has many fathers.
“Clearly everyone in this Government is responsible for the Bedroom Tax and I am one of them.”
The Sunday People is campaigning to have the savage cuts in housing benefit affecting 660,000 households scrapped.
We argue that while the spare room subsidy is not technically a tax it operates in exactly the same way.
People have an average £14 a week taken away from incoming money if they have one extra bedroom and £25 for two. That is a tax on their bedrooms.
Labour has promised to get rid of it if they win the General Election in 2015.
Baroness Sherlock said: “Thanks to this Freudian slip we now know the entire Government is behind this grossly unfair and unworkable tax.
“Half a million people are suffering, most of them disabled, because David Cameron won’t admit he’s got it wrong.
“He should abolish the Bedroom Tax now.”
A Department of Work and Pensions spokesman said: “Lord Freud’s response was clearly matching the tone of the question. He was also very clear earlier in the debate that the removal of the spare room subsidy is not a tax.”
This is Lord Freud’s second major Bedroom Tax blunder this month. He admitted there are not enough one-bed homes for victims to move into. But he tried to shift the blame for that on to local authorities.
Lord Freud stays in an eight-bedroom country mansion – when he’s not living in his £1.9million London home.
The great-grandson of psychoanalyst Sigmund owns a huge, historic country pile in Kent – one of the oldest in England – for weekends and holidays.
Yesterday hundreds of demonstrators across Britain turned out in a nationwide protest against the tax.
Protesters in Manchester banged pots and pans as they left Cathedral Gardens to march through the city. Placards were also held high in Cardiff, Barnsley and Newport.
Brenda Delaney, 53, of Salford, is facing an uphill struggle to stay in her home – a two-bedroom flat she has lived in for 20 years.
She said: “I am a wheelchair user and have different medical conditions. I’ve had to turn my heating off to try and make ends meet.
“There are no suitable one-bedroom places near here anyway. I’m not a shirker. I’m just trying to get by.”
Last week David Cameron’s new minister for the controversial charge Esther McVey was heavily criticised for calling for three-bed houses to be turned into one-bed properties.
Mirror
His leader David Cameron will hit the roof because he insists the hated measure is called the spare room subsidy – to make it sound less cruel.
The PM’s anger will be even fiercer as Freud is the welfare minister in charge of the Bedroom Tax in the House of Lords.
His latest blip comes just days after the Sunday People reported his Freudian slip when he attempted to blame local authorities for a lack of one-bedroom properties.
Lord Freud’s gaffe came just minutes after he mocked another peer for using the term.
He told Labour’s Baroness Hollis: “I must make the point that while the party opposite likes to use the expression “Bedroom Tax” it is deeply misleading.
"A tax is when you take away money people earn. We are limiting the amount of money that the taxpayer pays to people.”
Shadow work and pensions minister Maeve Sherlock suggested ministers were now referring to the spare-room subsidy as “Lord Freud’s idea” to distance themselves from it.
She added: “Would the minister like to take this opportunity to rebut that outrageous slur?” Lord Freud replied: “A good idea has many fathers.
“Clearly everyone in this Government is responsible for the Bedroom Tax and I am one of them.”
The Sunday People is campaigning to have the savage cuts in housing benefit affecting 660,000 households scrapped.
We argue that while the spare room subsidy is not technically a tax it operates in exactly the same way.
People have an average £14 a week taken away from incoming money if they have one extra bedroom and £25 for two. That is a tax on their bedrooms.
Labour has promised to get rid of it if they win the General Election in 2015.
Baroness Sherlock said: “Thanks to this Freudian slip we now know the entire Government is behind this grossly unfair and unworkable tax.
“Half a million people are suffering, most of them disabled, because David Cameron won’t admit he’s got it wrong.
“He should abolish the Bedroom Tax now.”
A Department of Work and Pensions spokesman said: “Lord Freud’s response was clearly matching the tone of the question. He was also very clear earlier in the debate that the removal of the spare room subsidy is not a tax.”
This is Lord Freud’s second major Bedroom Tax blunder this month. He admitted there are not enough one-bed homes for victims to move into. But he tried to shift the blame for that on to local authorities.
Lord Freud stays in an eight-bedroom country mansion – when he’s not living in his £1.9million London home.
The great-grandson of psychoanalyst Sigmund owns a huge, historic country pile in Kent – one of the oldest in England – for weekends and holidays.
Yesterday hundreds of demonstrators across Britain turned out in a nationwide protest against the tax.
Protesters in Manchester banged pots and pans as they left Cathedral Gardens to march through the city. Placards were also held high in Cardiff, Barnsley and Newport.
Brenda Delaney, 53, of Salford, is facing an uphill struggle to stay in her home – a two-bedroom flat she has lived in for 20 years.
She said: “I am a wheelchair user and have different medical conditions. I’ve had to turn my heating off to try and make ends meet.
“There are no suitable one-bedroom places near here anyway. I’m not a shirker. I’m just trying to get by.”
Last week David Cameron’s new minister for the controversial charge Esther McVey was heavily criticised for calling for three-bed houses to be turned into one-bed properties.
Mirror
