The PM should be consistent with tax payer funded benefits cap
Liberal Democrat MP, Andrew George, challenged the Prime Minister in the Commons today to be consistent in his policy to apply a benefits cap.
Mr George urged the PM to cap payments to wealthy landowners.
Mr George asked the Prime Minister: “Of course, any Government should seek to introduce a reasonable cap on very high claims for tax payer funded benefits. But if ‘we’re all in it together’, why is the Government resisting the introduction of a cap on the payment of hundreds of thousands of pounds – and in some individual cases of a million pounds – of tax payer funded benefits to the largest and wealthiest landowners in the country through the farm support system?”
The PM declined to explain the Government’s resistance.
Mr George said: “If the Government wants to be consistent then they should also apply a cap on tax payer funded payments to large and wealthy landowners. I have been pressing the Environment Secretary on this matter and will continue to argue that farm support should be directed at the most marginal commercial farm holdings and not those large farmers who do not need the money.”