Labour Mocks Lib Dems As Its Peers Vote To Keep Bedroom Tax

Liberal Democrat travails over the bedroom tax were mocked by Labour after its peers voted to keep the tax despite a call by the party president, Tim Farron, to oppose it. Farron is largely working to influence the party manifesto, but Labour challenged why only two Liberal Democrat peers had voted against the tax during a Lords debate. Peers voted by 188 to 173, government majority 15, against a Labour motion strongly criticising regulations closing a loophole in the policy. The shadow welfare minister, Baroness Sherlock, told peers: "I was delighted to read the reports from Tim Farron that the Liberal Democrats were going to withdraw their support from the bedroom tax." But Lord German, who speaks for the Lib Dems on social security in the Lords, told Sherlock: "I asked Tim Farron if that is what he said and he did not say that." Read more on the Guardian website.