BENEFIT SNATCHER CAM IS CHIP OFF OLD THATCH.

Byline: JASON BEATTIE

DAVID Cameron was branded a "crazy Thatcherite" yesterday for attacking the benefits system.

The Tory leader was blasted by Work and Pensions Secretary Yvette Cooper after he claimed Government measures such as Sure Start, tax credits and child benefit had killed off "human kindness" and promoted "selfishness". In a speech in London he promised to roll back the state and let charities and voluntary groups help the low-paid, jobless and under-privileged.

Mr Cameron - who vowed to "franchise out" social programmes to "entrepreneurs" - even blamed benefits for breaking down communities. He said: "There is less expectation to work, to stand by the mother of your child, to achieve. Why? Because the state is ever-present - doing it for you, or telling you how to do it."

Ms Cooper rubbished the comments saying that, far from holding people back, the Government's use of benefits had helped 365,000 lone parents back to work.

She added: "The idea that things like the NHS or tax credits are killing kindness is a crazy sign of how Thatcherite David Cameron really is.

"This is just a return to Thatcherism and the last time they tried that, child poverty doubled."

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