Hard-working families in Bradford will pay the price of the Coalition government’s economic failure, according to a Labour MP.

Gerry Sutcliffe claimed thousands of employed Bradfordians will be hit hard by changes being brought in by David Cameron and George Osborne.

The Bradford South MP said: “Every week I speak to people in Bradford who have a job and are working hard but still rely on their tax credits to help make ends meet.

“Sometimes we all need a bit of extra help. We need to reform the system so benefits are tough, fair and reward people who work.

"George Osborne and David Cameron have tried to divide the country by dishonestly claiming that their welfare policies are targeting the work-shy and benefit ‘scroungers’. Quite simply, they are introducing a tax on strivers.”

But Bradford East Liberal Democrat MP David Ward said it was the previous Labour government that got the country into the current mess. He said: “I am not happy with the rhetoric coming out of Mr Sutcliffe.”

He said: “I am concerned about the impact it will have in places like Bradford. We are in a terrible economic mess nationally that Mr Sutcliffe’s lot landed us in.”