Rother Valley MP Sir Kevin Barron column: 'The Tories have failed on their central vision'

Iain Duncan Smith's resignation last Friday has revealed George Osborne as a Chancellor who puts his career before the country and Tory Party in disarray.

The events of the last few days have revealed how the Tories under David Cameron and George Osborne have failed on their central vision: to change the Conservative Party and to fix the economy.

David Cameron this week tried to defend his woeful record in government, the truth is that for all his rhetoric about ‘compassionate Conservativism’ this has never been delivered.

Last week’s unfair Budget is what we have come to expect from this Tory Government - the wrong choices, wrong priorities and a failure to stand up for the most vulnerable in our society.

Iain Duncan Smith let the cat out of the bag in his resignation letter: George Osborne is a Chancellor who puts his career before the country.

It is clear that no one believes Iain Duncan Smith has had a change of heart over welfare reform – he is, after all, the man who introduced the Bedroom Tax – his comments reveal a growing anger within the Tory Party about George Osborne’s economic failure.

He has failed to meet his own political motivated economic targets and to make up for it he chose to punish the most vulnerable, cutting support for people with disabilities to cut taxes for the wealthiest.

George Osborne should take responsibility and resign. He has failed his party, failed the economy and failed our country.

Many of my constituents contacted me about the proposed cut to Personal Independence Payments which would have affected over one thousand of my constituents.

I am glad that following pressure from Labour and many on his own side that he scrapped that proposal.

My constituency neighbour John Healey MP, Labour’s Shadow Minister for Housing and Planning, this week highlighted new government data revealing that homelessness has risen by a third since 2010 and the number of disabled people made homeless has increased by 39 per cent.

This huge rise in homelessness is a further blow to the credibility of David Cameron’s claim to ‘compassionate Conservatism’.

The homeless figures hide personal stories of hurt and hopelessness; thousands of people whose ordinary lives have fallen apart from illness, debt, family break-up, addiction or redundancy.

This spiralling scale of homelessness shames us all when Britain is one of the richest countries in the world.

The Government’s failure to control housing costs and crude cuts to housing support over the last six years are making the problem much worse.

Conservative Ministers have no long-term housing plan for the country.

These figures are just the tip of the iceberg of the housing crisis but they are a condemnation of Conservative housing policy and the harsh impact it is having on those who are most vulnerable.

Finally, I want to send my heartfelt condolences to all who were affected by the cowardly terrorist attacks in Brussels, these attacks were aimed at people on their way to work and going on holiday.

All our thoughts are with the families of the dead, all of those injured and with the emergency services for everything they have done to deal with this crisis.

We stand in solidarity with the people of Brussels - today and always.

I echo what Shadow Foreign Secretary Hilary Benn said earlier in the week “we say with one voice to those responsible who seek to sow fear and division, you will fail because we are determined to hold dear the values we share and the way of life we cherish.”

You can contact Sir Kevin Barron MP about his weekly column in the Guardian by writing to him at Sir Kevin Barron MP, House of Commons, London, SW1A 0AA, by phone at 01909 568611, or by email at [email protected].