Autumn Statement 2015: George Osborne's U-Turn On Tax Credits Is Everyone's Doing, Apparently

Everyone Including The Sun Is Claiming Osborne's U-Turn As Their Own 'Big Win'
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Labour, SNP, Lib Dem and Green MPs - and even the Sun newspaper - are all behind the Osborne backdown over tax credits today, if their claims on Twitter are to be believed.

Each party piled in to stake their claim to forcing the Chancellor's hand, branding the u-turn in Wednesday's Autumn Statement on in-work benefit cuts to be their own personal "big win".

But the messages of sincerity quickly turned to farce, as users began coming up with more ridiculous excuses to pat themselves on the back for Osborne's climbdown.

There were spectacular GIFs...

Photoshops...

And obviously someone was going to wedge in a 'Spartacus' reference somewhere.

Osborne faced difficulty, after public outcry and pressure from several of his Conservative colleagues forced him to axe the £4.4bn cuts today.

After suffering a humiliating defeat in the House of Lord last month, he was left with little choice but to mitigate the effects of his planned tax credit crackdown or scrap the idea completely.

Speaking today, Osborne explained his about-face, saying: "I’ve had representations that these changes to tax credits should be phased in. I’ve listened to the concerns. I hear and understand them.

"And because I’ve been able to announce today an improvement in the public finances, the simplest thing to do is not to phase these changes in, but to avoid them altogether.

"Tax credits are being phased out anyway as we introduce universal credit. What that means is that the tax credit taper rate and thresholds remain unchanged."