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DAVID CAMERON was last night accused of using Scots as guinea pigs for his brutal benefit cuts - just like Margaret Thatcher did with the poll tax.

The Con-Dems confirmed they have chosen Aberdeen as their testing ground for plans to force hundreds of thousands of people off incapacity benefit. And furious Labour MPs last night claimed the Tories and their Lib Dem allies had learned nothing f rom Thatcher's decision to test the hated poll tax. on Scotland in 1989.

Glasgow MP Margaret Curran said: "The Tories have not changed. Time after time, Scotland suffers worst when they get into power."

SNP work and pensions spokeswoman Eilidh Whiteford added: "After trialling the poll tax. in Scotland, the Tories and Lib Dems are now trialling welfare cuts here which will hit the most vulnerable hardest."

The Con-Dems want to hack 15billion off the benefits budget, despite warnings that their plans will single out the poorest in society.

Aberdeen is one of only two areas in the UK where they will try out their attack on incapacity benefit. Working-class Burnley in Lancashire is the other.

The Con-Dems want to take people off incapacity benefit and put them on either employment and support allowance or jobseeker's allowance.

Two-thirds of claimants are expected to end up on jobseeker's allowance, losing 28 per week as a result.

The first people to feel the effects will be 850 claimants in Aberdeen. They will get letters next month summoning them to medical tests.

Eventually, nearly 8500 local claimants will be reassessed.

Aberdeen South Labour MP Anne Begg, who is wheelchair-bound herself, said: "Cutting support for disabled people who are unable to work is plain cruel."

But employment minister Chris Grayling painted the onslaught as a bid to help the poor. He said: "With so many people abandoned on long-term sickness benefits, it is clear the system is broken."