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Liverpool Echo
Liverpool Echo
Entertainment
Olivia Williams

Good Morning Britain's Alistair Campbell slams government over Universal Credit cut

Good Morning Britain's Alistair Campbell accused the government of being in a "parallel universe" over the cuts to Universal Credit.

It comes as Chancellor Rishi Sunak appeared on the show to discuss the government's plans of job support schemes.

However, the £20 uplift to Universal Credit during the pandemic is set to be scrapped and GMB host Alistair grilled the Chancellor on whether he understood what this meant for families.

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He told Mr Sunak that families were set to be "plunged into poverty".

Alistair said: "Chancellor you're one of the wealthiest members of the cabinet, your wife is one of the wealthiest women in the world.

"Do you think you fully understand what this Universal Credit cut means to many, many families who are about to be plunged into poverty on the day your leader stands up on Wednesday to say everything is going so well?"

Rishi Sunak on GMB (ITV)

The Chancellor replied saying people could not accuse the government that they did not want to help people.

He said: "I think no one can accuse me or the government of being dogmatic or not wanting to support people given the actions we've taken over the past year and a half.

"I think we have a strong point of view that the best way of providing people with the support they need is to double down on our plans for jobs that we know is working and that is what today's announcements are about."

However, Alistair interjected to say that people on Universal Credit were already in jobs and that the government were in a "parallel universe".

He said: "But a lot of the people on Universal Credit are already in work and they are going to suffer a huge loss of income and a hit on their living standards.

"I feel sometimes you're in a parallel universe there.

"We've got you telling each other how marvellous it is all going, you've got the fuel crisis, the national insurance rise hitting the poorest hardest and now you're bringing in this Universal Credit cut, which even right-wing think tanks are saying are going to plunge more than half-a-million people into poverty."

However, Mr Sunak replied that these were "facts" and said: "Well you talk about parallel universe and these are the facts Alistair.

"A year ago, people were forecasting unemployment to reach 12%, millions and millions of people.

"What has actually happened as a result of our plan for jobs is that unemployment today is less than five percent.

"It's been falling for six months in a row and and it's lower here than in America, Canada, France, Italy and Spain and we have record number of job vacancies.

"Those are the facts and it's not parallel universe, that shows me the plan is working."

The Chancellor added that the government wanted wages to go up and people to get new skills.

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