Tory MP: people on benefits "only" losing £7.50 per week

Aiden Burley, Tory MP for Cannock Chase, speaking in yesterday's debate about Housing Benefit:

"Even according to Shelter's own briefing, the average loss in my constituency will be £30 a month-£7.50 a week. The total number of claimants in Cannock Chase is 10,278. Therefore, one eighth of my constituency-it is a very poor working-class constituency that used to have 52 coal mines-will have to adjust their weekly outgoings by less than a tenner."

Bridget Phillipson, Labour MP for Houghton and Sunderland South:

"Before I was elected, I managed a refuge for women and children fleeing domestic violence, and the city council supported these homeless families and got them rehoused, often in the private sector. The women would often pay a small top-up to their housing benefit, often to be near supportive family who could help with child care so that they could undertake training or return to the workplace. Such women will be doubly hit, and at the point when they are trying to get their lives back on track."

£7.50 per week probably isn't much for someone whose life experience is private school, Oxford Union, Oxford University Conservative Association, working for an MP and management consultancy. But it is a lot if you are a woman fleeing domestic violence.

It makes me feel sick to read the arrogant, flippant, smug drivel which Tory boys like Aiden Burley use to justify attacks on people who are less fortunate than them.