George Osborne jokes he only ate burger because there was no McLobster as he plots further cuts in welfare

Shameless George Osborne today signalled a fresh attack on welfare - as he joked about his own wealth.

The Chancellor laughed about eating lobster as he suggested his war on benefits would ramp up “over the years ahead” - in order to cut the deficit without introducing any tax rises on the rich.

Mr Osborne told MPs: “I don’t think we’ve reached the end on welfare.”

Cutting the deficit without any tax increases would mean another £6billion of cuts after 2015.

But Mr Osborne told the House of Commons Treasury Committee: “I am clear that tax increases are not required to achieve this.

"It can be achieved with spending reductions.”

The Chancellor also defended the benefit cuts he announced in last month’s Spending Review - including plans that would make soldiers wait seven days before they can get help for accommodation after leaving the army.

Mr Osborne’s remarks came despite admitting to MPs that he had never been to a food bank and was clueless about how much housing benefit people could get.

And despite revealing his plan to axe support for the poor, he joked at a Westminster lunch about dining on lobster - and boasted that he “always sleeps well”.

At the gathering of journalists in Parliament, Mr Osborne said the revelations that he ordered a posh £10 Byron burger the night before the Spending Round had got a key fact wrong.

He said: “They thought I had ordered from Byron because Byron delivers, when in fact it was because McDonalds had run out of McLobster.”

 

Earlier, at the Treasury Select Committee, Mr Osborne claimed the soaring number of families relying on food banks was because more people knew the existed.

Asked by MPs if he had ever visited one of the services, he replied: “No, I have not visited a food bank.”

He added: “I think one of the reasons that there has been increased use of food banks is because people have been made aware of the food bank service through local jobcentres.

An angry Pat McFadden, a Labour MP, asked Mr Osborne if he had ever struggled with money.

“Look, I’ve had a fortunate upbringing,” the Chancellor said. “I’ve worked since I left education.”

Mr Osborne today also announced plans to give married couples a tax break.

He said the controversial proposal - attacked by Labour and the Lib Dems - would be introduced by the end of the year.

The Chancellor said: “I am absolutely committed to introducing it, the Government is committed to introducing it and I think you can expect to see it in the Autumn Statement.”

Mr Cameron promised a tax allowance worth around £150 to married couples at the election.

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has ridiculed the proposals as “patronising drivel”.

Cathy Jamieson, Labour’s Shadow Treasury Minister, said: “This Government should be helping all families and not just some.

“Millions of people who are separated, widowed or divorced, as well as married couples where both partners work and use all their personal allowance, won’t get any help from this out-of-touch policy.”



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.....The thing is that they won't be in after the election in 2015!.....It's either going to be an outright Labour victory or a Lib/Lab coalition!

It will be interesting to see what Labour propose in their manifesto prior to the next GE and whether they are going to stick with the current spending plans or not. 

Here's hoping British citizens do the right thing and make sure these awful people are out of power. Then maybe, hopefully, some of them some day will know what it feels like to be powerless and have every budget-cutting proposal putting a target on your back when there's absolutely nothing you can do about it.

Ben_Reilly wrote:Here's hoping British citizens do the right thing and make sure these awful people are out of power. Then maybe, hopefully, some of them some day will know what it feels like to be powerless and have every budget-cutting proposal putting a target on your back when there's absolutely nothing you can do about it.

It's been discussed on a few of the current affairs programs today and it turns out that only 10% of the welfare budget goes on the sick and unemployed the other 90% is spent on pensions it's all just misinformation to detract attention away from the rich bankers that caused the world wide crisis in the first place and onto the poor.