Benefit cap ‘immoral’ says top Lib Dem

Sarah Teather accused Ministers of seeking to “gain popularity at the expense of children’s lives” by pushing through a measure they knew was popular but ineffective. Ms Teather faced calls for her sacking as Children’s Minister in February after she missed a key vote on the reforms, which she had publicly questioned. She eventually departed from government ranks in September’s reshuffle.

Speaking to The Observer, she said: “I think deliberately to stoke up envy and division between people in order to gain popularity at the expense of children’s lives is immoral. It has no good intent.

“My fear is that a lot of people will effectively just disappear from the area in which they were living. I think some very horrible things are going to happen.”

A spokesman for Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith accused Ms Teather of hugely misinformed scaremongering.