Watch George Osborne Speak Out Against Cuts To Those On Low Incomes

    In a 2007 video, the then shadow chancellor called the budget cuts a "con trick". Eight years later, Osborne faces similar scrutiny for his own plan.

    Parliamentary Recording Unit

    In 2007, George Osborne, then shadow chancellor, launched a savage attack in the House of Commons against tax and tax credit changes introduced in Gordon Brown's final Budget that left millions of low-income earners worse off.

    In a parliamentary video obtained by BuzzFeed News, Osborne branded then chancellor Brown the "sheriff of Nottingham" and called his Budget a "con trick" designed to make people assume "they would be better off as a result of a tax-cutting Budget".

    Brown's 2007 Budget cut the basic rate of income tax from 22p to 20p, but funded this by removing a 10p tax band for the lowest earners.

    Those with low incomes were meant to be compensated by tax credit changes, but analysis by the Institute of Fiscal Studies (IFS) found some people – especially single people on low incomes – would be left up to £232 a year worse off.

    Osborne was withering in his response the day after the Budget was delivered. "This was not a tax cut: It was a con trick," he said. "The public have seen straight through it."

    He said: "The chancellor said in his speech that he wanted 'to ensure working families are better off'. But when the Institute for Fiscal Studies looked last night at the small print, it was clear that 3.5 million working families, mainly the lowest paid, will be worse off as a result of this Budget."

    Osborne also noted that Brown had also made changes which reduced how much some families on middle incomes would receive in tax credits.

    "The increase in the tax credit withdrawal rate will raise £600 million for the exchequer ... As I was saying, the chancellor taxed the low-paid to fund his con trick on middle England. That is how desperate he has become."

    Because of the loss of income to some low-paid workers in "a tax-cutting Budget", Osborne branded Brown "stealthy, sneaky, and unable to tell the truth", before concluding:

    "Anyone at home listening to the chancellor must have assumed that they
    would be better off as a result of a tax-cutting Budget," Osborne said. "What the
    chancellor did not tell them was that it was a con trick."

    Brown eventually did a partial U-turn on the measure and introduced steps to compensate those affected.

    Eight years later, George Osborne faces similar scrutiny following IFS analysis of his own Budget, which he said offered "tax cuts" and would leave working families better off.

    The IFS analysis found millions of families would be worse off due to the tax credit changes, even when accounting for a new £9-an-hour living wage. Families with children would be on average £737 worse off, while those without someone in work would be more than £3,000 worse off.

    Despite a coalition of opposition to the reforms ranging from Jeremy Corbyn's Labour party to the Sun newspaper, Osborne remains insistent that he will not modify his tax-credit plans.

    Labour is using its opposition day debate for a three-hour debate in the Commons on tax credits on Tuesday afternoon.