A Conservative cabinet minister has said his party must “not desert the battlefield” when it comes to defending policy in areas such as health and welfare, but instead be prepared to embark on Twitter spats with critics.
The work and pensions secretary, David Gauke, suggested his decision to use social media to challenge a Labour MP’s claims about universal credit were part of a concerted Tory effort to respond more robustly.
He also claimed that “bogus” accusations by Labour and the media had resulted in a spike in the number of claimants turning up to job centres with unfounded anxieties.
“I think it is important that we do not desert the battlefield. Social media can at the moment feel dominated by the hard left. I think it is important we engage and make the points,” he said.
“I strongly believe we have got a really good policy with this that will transform lives, but there is almost a sort of knee-jerk criticism and a temptation in particular with universal credit that you can almost say anything critical about it and it goes without challenge.”
The minister’s ongoing battle with Frank Field (whom he admitted was not someone who could be described as “hard left”) comes after the health secretary, Jeremy Hunt, became embroiled in a row with the comedy actor Ralf Little over mental health statistics.
Meanwhile, the Conservative party has boosted its social media presence and Downing Street has brought in a new social media expert, hoping to tackle some of the party’s weaknesses highlighted in the 2017 election.
Field, who chairs the Commons work and pensions committee, claimed on Twitter that a mother-of-two was facing Christmas without any payments as a result of being moved onto universal credit, leading the Department for Work and Pensions to look into the case.
Gauke hit back at the Labour MP, claiming he was wrong, only for Field to later respond by saying that wasn’t the member of the public he was referring to.
It's great that you've found and helped someone in such desperate need. But the mum to whom I referred still hasn't had an appointment. The public has ensured she has money for food and heating today. She's still seeking help from DWP and I hope you'll ensure this happens.
— Frank Field MP (@frankfieldteam) December 20, 2017
Field insisted the woman had not been given an appointment with DWP but eventually admitted that she had later discovered that an advance payment had been made on Monday.
Gauke said the money had been handed over before any intervention because the system worked. “If the Labour Party really want to help, they should provide us with the information we would need to act quickly.”
The minister said there was a “legitimate debate” to be had about universal credit but claimed that unfounded scare stories were having a negative impact on benefit recipients.
“I am concerned that there are vulnerable people who are scared not by actual cases, but by some of the uninformed criticisms of cases that are not as they are first portrayed. We have seen that pretty consistently; there have been many incidents of that.”
He insisted that the evidence was showing universal credit was a transformative reform, and said his government had listened to concerns raised by Tory MPs about a six-week waiting period.
He revealed that the take-up of advance payments by those having to wait five or six weeks to move onto UC had risen from around a third to 62% – while 80% of people were receiving their full payments within the period – up from half during the summer.
Gauke admitted that after a £1.5bn package for universal credit in the budget, he had an ambition to put more money into the system to reduce the taper rate at which people lose the money as they go into work.
“Its been brought down to 65 to 63%, the aspiration to bring it down further is one we share,” he said. “What we have got is big and ambitious, but it is something that on the ground is working well.”
Gauke was speaking during a briefing at the Centre for Social Justice alongside its founder, the former welfare secretary and architect of the new benefit, Iain Duncan Smith.
The former Tory leader also accused Jeremy Corbyn of getting his facts wrong. “The leader of the opposition has got up at the despatch box at prime minister’s questions saying all these people were basically being evicted because of UC in Gloucester. Turned out to be a completely bogus story, not true.”
“I think the media has to have a bit of responsibility in dealing with people who are in vulnerable situations.
“I do think these facts should be fully checked. The opposition is playing a political game with this, and their game is to try and make things look as bad as possible. But, frankly I think it is pretty cynical to do that and I would suggest people behave a little bit more responsibly because these are people’s lives.”
Duncan Smith was particularly angry about a claim by the BBC’s Paul Lewis that 100,000 Britons would miss out on benefits over Christmas – claiming that the initial claim led the bulletins, while a later retraction was not reported so heavily.
Gauke’s intervention comes after Hunt took to Twitter again following repeated clashes with Little, an actor in The Royle Family. On Wednesday, Hunt challenged Corbyn’s claims over mental health spending on Twitter.
