The increases for many social welfare recipients will be clawed back by changes in rent supplements, which have been rightly condemned by housing groups and community welfare officers. Despite that, the Government had the gall to claim that the budget protects the weaker sections of society. It took a lot of gall for someone who is known in this House as a right winger to say that the Government is on the left of the political spectrum, particularly when the Administration's policies mirror those of the Tories in the UK in the 1980s.