Last night the Tories refused to vote with Labour this evening to stop Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak’s plan to cut Universal Credit by over £1,000 a year, which is equivalent to the cost of an average family’s annual electricity, gas and internet bills combined. This will hit over 35,000 people in Hull after Labour forced a vote in the Commons to scrap the cut and support family incomes during the pandemic.

It is unthinkable that Tory MPs are pulling away support from families in East Hull in the midst of an economic crisis. The Government’s mismanagement of the pandemic response has left Britain with the worst recession of any major economy. Now the Government is trying to make families pay the price of their incompetence, hitting household incomes and threatening our recovery.

Families in East Hull deserve support during this crisis, not cuts. This was a missed opportunity for the government to give them the certainty and security they deserve.