(UK) Welfare budget cuts defended by Danny Alexander following leaked letter

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Source: The Guardian

Senior figures in the coalition government have defended plans to slash £2.5bn from the welfare budget after a letter by the chancellor, George Osborne, to the work and pensions secretary, Ian Duncan Smith, and leaked to the Observer, was seized upon by Labour as evidence of a "vicious" attack on the poorest.

The chief secretary to the Treasury, Danny Alexander, reiterated the coalition's pledge that all cuts to welfare would be "fair" and said things had "moved on" since the letter was written before June's emergency budget.

The memo, dated 19 June, suggested an agreement had already been reached to impose deep cuts on the budget for employment and support allowance (ESA) – the successor to incapacity benefit – despite official insistence that no decisions have yet been made on where the axe will fall. ESA is paid to those judged unable to work because of illness or disability.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/sep/12/welfare-budget-cuts-danny-alexander

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Meanwhile, Labour leadership contender Ed Miliband justifies the cuts with the usual "poor people are lazy" argument: "I think there are people in communities who could work and aren't working and we need to make sure that they do and I will support sensible measures to make that happen – and we did a lot of that in government. To condemn everybody on long-term sickness benefits as somehow malingering when people have very serious illnesses and diseases I don't think is right or fair."