Exclusive: Lib Dem chief secretary accuses Tories of ‘trying to con the British people’ by concealing until after the election plans for major reforms to child benefits and child tax credits

Danny Alexander, the Liberal Democrat chief secretary to the Treasury, has taken the extraordinary step of lifting the lid on Tory plans for an £8bn plan to cut welfare, including slashing child benefits and child tax credits.



Alexander reveals that in June 2012, members of the Quad – the inner group of the four most senior cabinet members – were sent a paper by the work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith entitled “Welfare Reform Quad Summer Reading Pack” setting out plans for £8bn of welfare reforms.



The proposed cuts included:



Limiting support to 2 children in child benefit and child tax credit, so cutting up to £3,500 from a family with three children.

Removing the higher rate child benefit from the first child, an average cut of over £360 for every family with children.

Means testing child benefit – cutting £1,750 for a two child middle income family

Removing child benefit from 16 to 19 year olds – a cut of over £1,000 for parents of a single child.

The Conservatives have been under sustained pressure to detail how they will cut £12bn from the welfare budget by 2017-2018, and the Institute for Fiscal Studies thinktank confirmed this week the Tories have so far disclosed only 10% of these cut in the form of a two-year freeze in working age benefits.

A separate internal government paper, Alexander reveals, was drawn up by the Treasury commissioned by the Tories for an additional £6bn cuts in welfare to be announced in the 2012 Autumn Statement.

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The £8bn worth of welfare cuts were drawn up by Duncan Smith at a time when the cabinet was considering whether to stick to its timetable to reduce Britain’s national debt as a proportion of GDP. The plan was dropped.

Previous hints of the cuts being considered by the Conservatives have been brushed aside by senior cabinet members, but it will be harder for the Conservative Party to refute the accusations of Alexander, a man that has sat at the centre of the government and has been in possession of the relevant documents.

Alexander’s decision to make the allegations, and challenge the chancellor George Osborne to deny the plans, is also a sign of the personal frustration Alexander feels over what he regards as Conservative evasion. The Tories have said they will only set out plans for welfare cuts after the election.

In a statement setting out his reasons for disclosing the existence and content of the documents, Alexander said: “I am lifting the lid on this now because the Conservatives are trying to con the British people by keeping their planned cuts secret until after the election.

“It’s clear from our time in government that the Tories target will be slashing support for families.

They now ask the British people to trust them when they make unfunded pledges on health and tax yet they won’t tell us how they will cut welfare for millions of families to pay for their plans. They may give with one hand but they will take away twice as much as with the other.”

A Liberal Democrat source added: “The measures set out in the document would have raised over £8bn – and shines a light on the scale of the cuts to working age welfare support the Tories will need to make to deliver on their cuts to welfare.

“Whilst the Tories refuse to make their cuts public it is clear they have already done the thinking If this is what they were capable of proposing in 2012, this is what they will be planning in 2015. It’s really important political leaders should be held to account on this in the last TV debate of the election. The public need the full picture to make the judgement.”

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A Conservative spokesman said of the allegations by Alexander: “This is desperate stuff from Liberal Democrats who are now willing to say anything to try and get attention. We don’t recognise any of these proposals and to be absolutely clear, they are definitely not our policy.”

Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat leader, Ed Miliband, the Labour leader and David Cameron are all due to appear on the BBC on Thursday in back to back 30 minute interviews. Clegg intends to put maximum pressure on Cameron to reveal his hand.

Alexander said: “For five years I won battle after battle to stop the Tories veering off to the right with ideological cuts and it has been worth it to keep the economy on track while ensuring a fairer society.”

Labour earlier in the day had been pressing Conservatives to admit that a mix of their deficit reduction plans, new spending commitments and ring fencing of some department budgets, including pensions, meant it was inevitable that the Tories would seek to cut tax credits and child benefit to meet its targets. Labour said as many as 65% of tax credit recipients were in work, and not on welfare as traditionally defined.

Michael Gove, the chief whip, went further than any Conservative in insisting the government would not go further than freezing tax credits: “We’re going to freeze them for two years, we are not going to cut them.” He also argued that the Conservatives’ track record in government showed they were capable of making the £12bn of savings in the welfare budget they have planned during the next parliament.”

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“The past is the best guide to the future. Our track record is the best way in which we can be judge and the fact that we’ve been able to save £21bn in the welfare budget and at the same time reduce inequality and reduce child poverty in this country is an indication of our values and our competence.”