Thank you very much. I was very grateful that all members of the Equality and Social Justice Committee supported the request for me to sign a joint letter to Thérèse Coffey as Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, which went from all the Chairs of the committees responsible for social justice in the four Parliaments of the UK. And I'm aware that a similar joint letter has been sent by the Minister for Social Justice with her counterparts from the other devolved Governments. 

What is most extraordinary about this cruel cut is it is opposed by no less than six former Conservative Secretaries of State for Work and Pensions. So, I think it's a very uncomfortable task for Members of the Conservative Party on the benches opposite to be arguing that this is a credible idea. Indeed, a majority of Conservative voters, according to a recent poll, are opposed to this cut because they seem to fully understand, in a way that Rishi Sunak does not, that this is coming at the time of a perfect storm. Not only is it the time when the furlough support is being withdrawn, but it is also in the week, this week, when we have seen a massive increase in the energy prices, and a hike in what is the cap that can be paid. There's a particularly massive hike in the amount of money that can be charged to people who are paying on the meter for their electricity and gas, who are themselves the very poorest people, because that is why they are having to have a more expensive access to electricity prices. In addition to that, this week, we have seen the impact of COVID on families who need to buy childcare. Far too many parents are having to simply work in order to pay for childcare in order to keep their job, and we can see how this is a perfect storm.

It seems to me a completely impossible idea that it is being argued by the Government that this was a temporary measure and we're now going back to business as usual, because there is no such thing as business as usual: we are still in a pandemic and people are still in precarious work, and meanwhile, prices are going up for a combination of reasons, including the legacy of leaving the European Union and the impact it's having on food supplies and food prices. It seems to me unbelievably difficult to in any way justify this cut at this particular time after 10 years of having failed to put up benefit rises in line with prices, and with wages. So, the very poorest people, including the poorest people in work, are going to have to pay for other people to have to pay fewer taxes. And it is an incredible situation.

So, I think what we have to debate now is what we can actually do about this ourselves, because we cannot influence Rishi Sunak; we do not know whether there'll be a last-minute change of heart, but it seems unlikely, given that they've now marked 1 October as the date on which this cut will come in, and have actually written to recipients to tell them that. So, I think the people who will be hit hardest will have to end up having to choose whether they eat or heat, or they will have to choose whether to eat and heat but not pay other bills like council tax bills, which in turn will impact on local authorities who will be unable to pick up the revenue that they can normally expect to get from council tax. So, it is a complete perfect storm and very, very difficult to see how we can mitigate the impact of this very cruel cut.