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Welfare Reform Bill

I will tell the hon. Gentleman; I will quote to him what the Leader of the Opposition said when these proposals were published:""the government should know that if they have a problem with their back benchers then the Conservative Party under my leadership will do the right thing and will back them up and make sure we reform welfare properly."" When we published the Green Paper, when we published the White Paper and on Second Reading, the Conservatives stood at that Dispatch Box and said that they would support our proposals. But tonight, this Bill and these proposals have not gone through with Conservative support; they have gone through despite the Conservatives. They voted against the proposals that we have just put forward—proposals that were supported by David Freud and by the right hon. Member for Chingford and Woodford Green (Mr. Duncan Smith). The Opposition cannot say that they believe in welfare reform, but when it comes to the test, vote against those very proposals.