David Cameron and George Osborne woke up to yet more critical headlines today over their decision to withdraw child benefit for higher-rate taxpayers.

The Daily Mail, in referring to the "growing backlash" over the cut, splashed on "Cameron says sorry to mums" and ran a trenchant leading article. Key sentence:

"What we are emphatically not prepared to accept without protest, however, is that the political class should yet again discriminate against one-earner families, through a tax and benefits system that has dealt them a lousy hand under successive governments over the decades."

The Daily Telegraph splash - Child benefit: I should have warned you, admits PM - mentioned a backlash within the Tory party.

Its leader, headlined Clever politics? No, crass and out of touch, called the government's proposal "ham-fisted". Its final paragraph said:

"There is a bigger danger lurking here than simply an angry backlash from Middle Britain... Both Mr Cameron and Mr Osborne have worked hard to shake off the caricature Labour was so keen to create of them – that they were privileged young men for whom money had never been a concern and were, therefore, unable to relate to the day-to-day concerns of the voters. This unhappy episode will revive the idea that they really are out of touch with the middle classes, a fact Labour has latched on to. If that seed takes root, then it could cost the Government dear in the difficult months ahead."

The Times was supportive of the government, however, pouring scorn on those who greeted the chancellor's "principled decision to cut child benefit for the wealthiest 15%" with "exclamations of anguish."

And The Sun also backed Cameron and Osborne, arguing that 85% of the people receiving child benefit will be unaffected.

The split between the Mail and Telegraph on one side and the News International papers on the other is interesting in terms of Rupert Murdoch's links to Cameron.

But it also reflects the way in which the Mail and Telegraph understand the problems faced by their Middle England (or Middle Britain) readers. That's the subject of my London Evening Standard column today, Child benefit row shows Tories can't count on the press.