A group of United Nations poverty ‘ambassadors’ has
launched a bizarre attack on the Coalition’s welfare reforms. In a 22-page
letter to Karen Pierce, Britain’s ambassador to the UN, they claim that cuts
introduced to tackle the huge budget deficit may break Britain’s international
treaty obligations to the poor. The move follows an ‘investigation’ by the UN’s
controversial Brazilian housing ‘rapporteur’, Raquel Rolnik. She is one of
three poverty ‘experts’ who have signed the letter. Iain Duncan Smith reacted furiously to the
‘absurd and unwarranted intervention’.
The Work and Pensions Secretary told the Daily Mail the new letter was
‘riddled with faulty logic’. He said: ‘They talk down our country, criticising
the action we’ve taken to get control of the public finances and create a
fairer more prosperous Britain. ‘They simply do not have a clue – and we will
not be taking lessons from a group of unelected commentators who can’t get
their facts straight.” Read more on the Daily Mail website.
