After insisting that her appointment in no way represented a ‘lurch to the left’ at the weekend by repeating the policy pronouncements that her predecessor was allowed to come out with, Rachel Reeves pitched up at DWP questions today with the same strategy that Liam Byrne had employed when taking on the Tories on welfare. The new shadow Work and Pensions secretary decided to focus not on who was the toughest on welfare, but on the delivery questions that had occupied Byrne towards the end of his tenure. When it came to her turn at topical questions, she rose and said:
‘We on this side of the House support the principle of universal credit but we’ve repeatedly raised questions about the Secretary of State’s ability to deliver. Since 2011 the Secretary of State has consistently promised that one million people will be claiming universal credit by April 2014. Can he now tell the House how many people he actually expects to be claiming Universal Credit by then and whether he will proceed with the previously announced plans to close down new claims for tax credits by that date?’
In response Mr Duncan Smith insisted that the roll-out would take place according to the timetable and that ‘many’ claimants would start on UC. But he added:
‘I say to her, if she says that she is in favour of it, perhaps she could explain why they have voted against universal credit at the start and have continued to do so?’
Reeves pushed a bit harder, saying:
‘Despite what the Secretary of State says, the truth is that by April next year, it will be possible to claim the universal credit at just 10 job centres, 10 out of a total of 772. Meanwhile the National Audit Office says that £34 million has already had to be written off, 333 million is now at risk and ministers have failed to set out how this policy will work. It is a catalogue of errors. So can the Secretary of State tell us how much money spent on the project will be money down the drain, and instead of blaming everybody but himself, wouldn’t it be better for the Secretary of State to turn down the volume on off-the-record briefings against his own permanent secretary, and start taking responsibility for his own failed policy?’
Duncan Smith had another bash at Labour later in the topical questions, teasing Reeves that in spite of her claims that the party was tougher on welfare, it had no evidence to back up that claim:
‘The benefit cap is both popular and it’s also effective and also the important point is that throughout today we’ve all noticed that though the new shadow Secretary of State said that they were going to be tougher on welfare, the only thing we’ve heard from them is opposition to every single spending reduction and welfare reform, that is a party that’s not fit for government.’
So for the time being, until Reeves finds her feet, it’s the same old debate in the same old departmental questions. Mind you, it’s not as though universal credit isn’t fertile ground to keep the Labour frontbench team busy, it’s just that picking at a mess does not a trustworthy welfare policy make.
P.S. Reeves is on her way up in her party, for sure, but it seems Robert Devereux, the beleaguered permanent secretary at DWP, is on his way out. Note in this clip how IDS steadfastly refused the opportunity offered by Frank Field to back Devereux:
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