Simon Hughes is the Liberal Democrat’s deputy leader and MP for Bermondsey and Old Southwark
Liberal Democrat Simon Hughes has warned the coalition that its planned housing benefit cuts might not be approved by Parliament.
The party’s deputy leader told Channel 4 News some of the proposals were “harsh and draconian”.
In its Spending Review last week, the government announced a 10% cut to the housing benefit budget.
Shadow work and pensions secretary Douglas Alexander offered to work with Mr Hughes to force a re-think.
Mr Hughes told Channel 4 he did not agree with a few of the proposals, which form a key plank of the government’s £18bn welfare cuts, and they would need to be altered if Lib Dem MPs were to support them.
The MP for Bermondsey and Old Southwark said he was opposed to the plans to cut housing benefit from 2013 by 10% for those who had been on jobseeker’s allowance for 12 months.
He also said it was “not right” to cap the limit and change the way housing benefit was assessed.
“My message to the government is I don’t think you will get Parliamentary approval for your current plans,” he said.
“I think government understands there has to be negotiations.
“The current proposals are not the best set of proposals, whatever the financial constraints. There are better ways of doing it and we need to achieve them.
“I am making sure the message from me and many colleagues is being communicated loud and clear to government.”
Mr Hughes said he believed the Spending Review was fair “as a whole”.
“I believe it is far fairer because Lib Dems are there than if it had been a Tory-only budget,” he said. “I believe it is broadly fair in that the rich will pay most and most of the poor will be protected.”
Earlier, Nick Clegg, the Lib Dem leader and deputy prime minister, defended planned cuts to housing benefit, saying it was not fair that people who went out to work got less help with accommodation than those who did not.
Mr Clegg told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show the plans would create more social housing and were “fair” on housing benefit claimants.
He said: “We need to do something about a housing benefit bill which has gone up from £10bn to £21bn in recent years under Labour and there haven’t been enough affordable homes built.
Labour’s Douglas Alexander said Mr Hughes’ comments showed “even the Liberal Democrat deputy leader doesn’t believe the government’s housing benefit cuts are fair”.
“We should be working to guarantee jobs for the long-term unemployed, not risking homelessness for those who are doing their best to find work,” he said.
“I now urge Simon Hughes to back up these words and, with us and other Lib Dem MPs, to force the government to think again.”
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