David Cameron has pointedly avoided ruling out cuts or other changes to child benefit, two days after the Liberal Democrats leaked a document detailing how such plans were proposed in 2012.
The prime minister was pressed on the issue after he stopped short of giving a firm guarantee on child benefit to audience members on BBC’s Question Time event on Thursday night.
Cameron said during the BBC programme that he did not want to cut child benefit and had no plans to do so – a similar form of words he used about VAT before the last election: the coalition increased the rate in 2010.
Referring to the Lib Dem leak in the Guardian, he said: “I don’t want to do that. This report … is something I rejected at the time as prime minister and I reject again today.
“Child benefit to me is one of the most important benefits there is. It goes directly to the family, normally to the mother, £20 for the first child, £14 for the second. It is the key part of families’ budgets in this country. That’s not what we need to change.”
While Cameron spoke emphatically, his language was equivocal. Speaking at Asda headquarters in Leeds on Friday, Cameron was again asked if he could be more explicit and rule out a cut in child benefit, but again did not make this promise.
“With child benefit we’ve made our reform,” he said. “We’ve said it is a vital benefit for Britain’s families. It goes straight to the mother in most cases. It forms a key part of family budget. We’ve made our reform. We’ve frozen it in this parliament and we’ve said we’ll have to freeze it for two years in the next parliament. We’ve said child benefit stays because it’s so important.
“But should we be reforming welfare? Should we have a country where it always pays to work? Yes we should.”
Labour has been campaigning hard on the idea that the Conservatives have a “secret plan” to cut child benefit and tax credit, as Cameron will have to find ways of making its pledged £12bn of savings from the welfare budget.
Ed Miliband said Cameron’s phrasing left open the possibility of cuts.
“David Cameron might have sounded like he gave you an answer but he didn’t give you a guarantee. Child benefit and tax credits are still on the ballot paper,” the Labour leader said on his Question Time appearance after the prime minister.
The party also pointed to an interview given by Liz Truss, the Tory environment secretary, in which she missed six opportunities to say child benefit was safe.
Asked on Thursday whether she could guarantee child benefit, she would only say: “We’ve made our plans absolutely clear, which is we are going to freeze working-age benefits for two years to save £2bn. The rest of the changes we’re making are all about helping get people into work. That is our priority, he made a very clear case for that. Ed Miliband, when challenged on welfare, he waffled away and didn’t really give any clear answers at all.”
