In case you missed it, Heidi Allen said all along that she wasn't rebelling against tax credit cuts

Conservative MP Heidi Allen's attack on George Osborne's tax credit cuts received much coverage earlier in the week after she said it was "sending a message to the poorest and most vulnerable in our society that we do not care".

Allen, the MP for South Cambridgeshire who was elected in May, said in her maiden speech in the Commons:

The Prime Minister has asked us that everything we do must pass the family test. Cutting tax credits before wages rise does not achieve that. Showing children that their parents would be better off not working at all does not achieve that.

Sending a message to the poorest and most vulnerable in our society that we do not care does not achieve that either.

I believe the pace of these reforms is too hard and too fast. As these proposals stand, too many people will be adversely affected. Something must give.

On the surface of the coverage of the speech it appeared to be a rebellion.

However, Allen has since been accused of flip-flopping on her stance, after it emerged she voted for the cuts to tax credits, for a second time.

To be fair to Allen, as she has protested via Twitter, she said all the while that she was going to vote in favour of tax credit cuts, despite her personal opposition to them.

Near the beginning of her maiden speech, Allen said:

Because I know that tax credits do need to change, I cannot support the black and white motion that is in front of us today. I am sorry, but I believe that the Opposition are wrong to say that we must not touch tax credits. However, a detailed debate about them does need to be had, and I am far from being the only Member on the Government Benches who recognises that.

Her full speech is available to read on House of Commons Hansard papers, or you can watch it via our previous article.

In essence, Allen was just speaking out against something she doesn't support, but voted for, because she also couldn't support Labour's motion against tax credit cuts.

Glad to have cleared that up for you.

HT Political Scrapbook

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