Victoria Derbyshire asked a Labour minister if he is “OK with making people worse off” as she grilled him on the government’s cuts to welfare.
Torsten Bell was forced to admit he could not live on £70 a week as he was roasted by the BBC Newsnight presenter.
The pair clashed after work and pensions secretary Liz Kendall unveiled plans to slash £5 billion from the welfare bill by cutting health and disability benefits.
Charities and MPs have savaged the package of reforms, branding them “simply indefensible”.
On Newsnight on Tuesday, Bell, who is a minister in Kendall’s department, admitted “there will be some people that lose out from today’s announcement”.
Derbyshire asked him: “Are you OK with making people worse off?”
The minister replied: “Well, I’m OK with saying this system has to change.”
The presenter then asked him again: “The question was: are you OK with making people worse off?”
Avoiding the question, Bell said: “Well, what I need is to deliver a sustainable benefits system when it comes to personal independence payments. 1,000 people a day ...”
Derbyshire then interrupted him to say: “1,000 people a day wasn’t my question. Are you OK with making people worse off?”
Bell said: “Well, I’m OK with building a sustainable system.”
She replied: “If people are worse off then so be it?”
The minister said: “In the long run, I think this is what make people will make people better off. More people will be working and will be able to sustain.”
But Derbyshire told him: “You don’t know that.”
Later in the interview, Derbyshire told the minister “some young people are going to be living on around £70 pounds a week” as a result of Labour’s reforms.
She asked the minister: “Could you live on £70 a week?”
After Bell said he “absolutely” could not, Derbyshire said: “So why do you expect young people to?”
But Bell told her: “We won’t. We provide housing benefit as well and we’ll provide personal independence payment.”
