Two Lib Dems rebel over the bedroom tax

Tim Farron, the party’s president, and Andrew George joined Labour in voting to stop the reduction in housing benefit for households deemed to have one or more spare bedrooms.

The Liberal Democrats voted at their party conference in September to axe the coalition policy.

The government won the vote by a majority of 26 however, after an opposition day debate organised by Labour.

Rachel Reeves, shadow work and pensions secretary, said to MPs: ‘We say that it’s time to stop this cruel and mad policy and it’s time for members on all sides of the house to take a stand.

‘Time to stand with the desperate families who are being forced out of their homes and forced into debt, to stand anyone who knows anything about housing or homelessness, the plight of disabled people or the lives of children in poverty who are all warning that this policy is… becoming a fiasco.’

David Davies, a Conservative MP, said during the debate that benefits claimants should act like ‘disciples’ and move to areas of the UK in in order to manage the effects of welfare reform.

Mr Davies joined his party in defending the policy and said the government should not continue to support those who did not go out to find work.

The MP for Monmouth said: ‘I even had somebody who emailed me, he said “you’re a Christian, you should be serving the Lord, one time you’ll stand by the Lord and account for this hardship” and I wrote back and I said “I read my bible. I don’t see anywhere in the bible where it says 17-year-olds should be given a flat, but I see plenty examples of people who have had to move for a better way of life, whether it’s Abraham going off to the promised land or Moses or the disciples who toured over Europe. They all moved.”’

Jeremy Lefroy, another Conservative backbencher, criticised the pay of housing association chiefs and suggested some of the money could contribute to the discretionary housing payment pot.

‘In south Staffordshire, the discretionary housing pot is £90,000 and they are working very hard to make it work,’ he said. ‘So it was a little surprise that I read that the salaries and benefits of the director of one of the local social housing providers were £223,000, £160,000, £149,000, £136,000 and £139,000.’

In a wide-ranging debate, MPs recounted anecdotes of their constituents who had been affected by the policy.

Labour’s Stephen Pound said his brother, who has a kidney disease, faced losing his home under the policy.

‘There is a young man who lives in Earls Court who is in total renal failure. This man’s spare bedroom is a dialysis unit,’ he said.

‘He has been told he now has to pay the bedroom tax. He is very happy with the efforts of his MP, not of my political persuasion, to attempt to free him from the chains of the bedroom tax…

‘But my brother faces losing his home of 20 years for being a kidney patient.’