GMB: Therese Coffey grilled on Universal Credit

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A high-profile Tory MP has hit out at “intolerable” levels of hunger and poverty in his affluent home counties constituency, and urged ministers not to cut universal credit. Steve Baker, who is the MP for Wycombe in Buckinghamshire and a leading Brexiteer, has told ministers not to ignore the cost of living crisis faced by people “in real trouble” in constituencies like his who had been “tipped over the edge” financially by the pandemic.

The comments come after Therese Coffey, work and pensions minister, has confirmed that the pandemic universal credit uplift of £20 a week will be withdrawn at the end of September.

Ms Coffey lobbied for the extension of the uplift but Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak were reportedly against it and decided not to grant any extension.

The Guardian has reported that there are a number of compromise solutions, including those that would more directly target children in poverty, that have been proposed.

However, the Treasury has made it clear to multiple departments that spending plans must be met with tax rises.

Mr Baker claimed that keeping the £20 uplift “wasn’t enough” and that universal credit must be examined in order to remove the requirement that new claimants wait a minimum of five weeks for a first payment.

The requirement has been blamed by many for pushing people into debt.

A number of senior Conservative MP’s, including six former work and pensions secretaries Sir Iain Duncan Smith, Damian Green, Esther McVey, Stephen Crabb, David Gauke, and Amber Rudd, have suggested that they are against the cut.

Six Conservatives have also rebelled on the issue after Labour forced a vote in January before the extension was announced.

The news comes after Mr Baker’s Wycombe has been identified as having the UK’s highest levels of food insecurity by a Sheffield University study.

Around 14 percent of residents have reported going hungry in January and February, with the third of participants claiming that they struggled to afford food.

Mr Baker told the Guardian: “This alarming report is a wake-up call for ministers.”

He added that he was not surprised by the study’s findings.

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The MP said: “I have told colleagues time and again during my time in parliament that poverty extends into my constituency in south Buckinghamshire.

“It is obviously intolerable anyone should be going hungry anywhere in the UK.”

According to Mr Baker, many of his constituents have suffered from the pressure of low pay, high housing cost, debt, and more financial troubles brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.

He said: “As soon as this report came out I raised it with ministers.

“I’m determined to get to the heart of this problem and lean into it so that I can say to ministers: ‘We have to look at the individual and the ward level where poverty is’, and that we don’t keep ignoring people in real trouble in places like Wycombe.”

He continued: “I have always believed, with [former Tory welfare secretary] Iain Duncan Smith, that more money should go into universal credit.

“What I am absolutely clear about is when people are in poverty, we spend an enormous amount through the welfare state and it should clearly help them, and it clearly isn’t.”

However, Mr Baker received criticism from local opposition politicians who were unhappy that he supported cuts to social security in the past and voted with the Government last year to oppose proposals to extend support for the families of children on free school meals.

The MP dismissed those claims saying: “I’m not going to sit here today and go through a whole list of things, difficult decisions made over 11 years in parliament and start reversing them.

“But I am going to say when people go on to universal credit they should just get paid immediately, and there should be no question of clawing it back.”

He added: “There should be more money going into universal credit to make sure that not only can people live on it but they can get the benefits of increasing work.

“That’s why I want to lean into this story. It should highlight to everyone that even a place like Wycombe knows that we have just got to do more to break these cycles of poverty.”

However, the former Labour candidate for Wycombe, Khalil Ahmed, claimed that Mr Baker is doing “too little, too late” to address the issue.

Mr Ahmed said: “Steve Baker was part of the problem – and now he’s presenting himself as part of the solution.”

A Government spokesperson said: “Universal credit has provided a vital safety net for six million people during the pandemic, and we announced the temporary uplift as part of a £400bn package of measures put in place that will last well beyond the end of the roadmap.

“Our focus now is on our multi-billion pound Plan for Jobs, which will support people in the long-term by helping them learn new skills and increase their hours or find new work.”

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