Renewed Calls To Scrap 'Bedroom Tax'

A Conservative backbencher at Westminster says the controversial "bedroom tax" idea should be reconsidered.

Nigel Mills told the BBC's World at One that the Department for Work and Pensions should look again at the idea. If implemented, the spare room subsidy would reduce housing benefit for people living in council houses with an unoccupied bedroom.

The SNP are renewing their call for the plan to be scrapped following the interview, calling the idea 'unfair' and 'indefensible'. SNP MSP Kevin Stewart said:

"The Bedroom Tax is a pernicious, unfair policy which targets some of the most vulnerable people in our society – and that now even Tory MPs accept that shows just how harmful this policy is.

"For years, we’ve seen David Cameron being led by the nose by Tory backbenchers, forcing him into dangerous policies like the EU referendum.  But we are now in the position where this UK Government’s policies are so extreme and unfair that even Tory backbenchers are finding them unpalatable."