Abby Tomlinson, founder of the 'Milifandom' internet phenomenon, has given David Cameron an awkward reminder of one of his pre-election cuts pledges, just 24 hours after his own Chancellor delivered the emergency Summer Budget.
Tweeting, Tomlinson posted a clip of the Prime Minister being grilled on a special edition of BBC Question Time in the run up to the general election, writing: "Anyone remember this question on the party leaders #bbcqt before the election? Worth a watch."
Attached was a short clip of audience member 'Jenny' asking Cameron whether he would "put to bed rumours that you plan to cut child tax credits and restrict child benefit to children".
The Prime Minister responded, saying: "No, I don't want to do that. This report that is out today is something I rejected at the time and I reject it again today."
Dimbleby, officiating proceedings, attempted to get the Prime Minister to clarify, saying: "Sorry – you said you didn’t want to put to bed the rumours that you were going to cut Child Tax Credits, you meant you did want to put to bed the rumour?"
Cameron added: "Ah, yes. We increased child tax credits actually, we increased them by £452 under this government because I was determined that while we had to take difficult decisions, and we have, we were left an absolute nightmare to clear up, I wanted to make sure that child poverty continued to fall and it has fallen because of what we did on child tax credits."
The long-standing ‘Question Time’ host attempted to wrap debate on the matter saying, "and so that’s a guarantee that you won’t", before turning to another audience member asking about the benefit cap.
That was on April 30th.
Fast-forward 11 weeks and one general election to July 8th...
Osborne in his own words: "In future we will limit the support provided through tax credits and Universal Credit to two children.
"Families who have a third or subsequent child after April 2017 will not receive additional Tax Credit or UC support for this child...
"In addition, those starting a family after April 2017 will no longer be eligible for the family element in Tax Credits."