COMMENTS BY THE DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER ON WELFARE REFORM

That this House notes that the Deputy Prime Minister has reprimanded the Conservatives over their rhetoric on welfare reform in particular their efforts to single out the so-called `undeserving poor', routinely dubbed as `shirkers', or, as the Chancellor of the Exchequer has described them, `people with their curtains drawn all day'; further notes that research by the respected Institute for Fiscal Studies predicts that seven million families with someone in work will experience a cut of £165 a year under Government welfare proposals; further notes that the poorest 10 per cent of households will lose on average 1.9 per cent of their weekly income while the richest 10 per cent will lose nothing; and calls on the Deputy Prime Minister to veto the proposed welfare benefit changes.