Clegg Rejects Social Cleansing Claims

The deputy prime minister has branded the language used by opponents of the government’s housing benefit reforms as ‘deeply offensive’. In Parliament, Labour MP Chris Bryant said welfare reform plans will mean the poor are ‘sociologically cleansed out of London’. Nick Clegg rejected the suggestion saying it is ‘outrageous’ to use the term cleansing, and ‘deeply offensive to people who have witnessed ethnic cleansing in other parts of the world’. Liberal Democrat Bob Russell has accused the government of ‘economic cleansing’ through its reforms, which will cap the maximum amount of local housing allowance that can be claimed. Mr Clegg also came under fire from Labour deputy leader Harriet Harman, who called for the government to review its plans to cut claimant’s housing benefit by 10 per cent if they have been receiving jobseekers’ allowance for more than a year. The BBC has reported that work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith may have to amend the plans to cap the local housing allowance to get enough support for the required legislation. Read more on the Guardian website.