Saturday, April 06, 2013

Danny Alexander rejects George Osborne's comments on the Philpott case


I told you the other night that Sarah Teather had condemned George Osborne's comments connecting the Philpott case to the welfare system. Some people made comments along the lines that it was only a backbencher, and no Liberal Democrat minister had said such a thing. Well, yesterday, Danny Alexander did. The BBC has the story. Danny said:
George Osborne is clearly right that there needs to be a full debate about the future of our welfare system but the Philpott case is an individual tragedy. Children have died in that case and the vile individuals who were guilty of these murders have rightly been punished by the courts but that's where I think that we should let that case lie. I wouldn't want to connect that to the much wider need to reform our welfare system.  The principle of the welfare system needs to be that people should always be better off in work than they are on benefits. That's what's motivating the big changes that we as a Coalition Government are making to the welfare system this week...
In a week where I have repeatedly called for senior Liberal Democrats to speak out when Tory ministers say things that make Liberal Democrats wince, I am happy to give credit where it's due.

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