George will not support Government Welfare plan

St Ives MP Andrew George will refuse to support the Government’s Welfare Bill this evening and has said he will vote against it until it is made fairer to all low income households, not just those who claim out of work benefit.
Mr George called on the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions Iain Duncan Smith to amend his Bill so that benefit recipients could at least have annual benefit rises in line with average wages rather than by an arbitrary 1%.
Speaking in the Commons, Mr George said: “We do not know…what food price inflation will be in, for example, 2016. We are being asked to predict what the circumstances will be in the context of the rather arbitrary figure of 1%. I simply urge my right hon. Friend to keep an open mind, and to have a means by which we will uprate that is fair to both benefit recipients and those in work.”