Chancellor Rishi Sunak has been given the go-ahead to build a swimming pool, gym and tennis court at his North Yorkshire home.
Mr Sunak had applied to develop the complex in a paddock at Kirby Sigston Manor, near Northallerton.
The grade II listed house, built in 1826, is in the MP’s Richmond constituency.
Hambleton District Council’s planning committee approved the plan, despite some concerns over its appearance, the BBC reported.
Exciting news from the man who’s about to remove £20 a week from some of the poorest and most vulnerable people in the country. https://t.co/EJX7L6hmza
— David Schneider (@davidschneider) August 27, 2021
It has also aggrieved several equality campaigners, many of whom have pointed to the Conservative’s recent Universal Credit cut, which has been passed on the chancellor’s watch.
“Serious concerns” have been raised over plans to remove the £20-a-week uplift to Universal Credit introduced at the start of the pandemic, with some coming from within the Conservative Party itself.
In a letter, MPs John Stevenson and Peter Aldous said keeping the uplift would be “one of our best legacies from the pandemic” that could “provide the cornerstone of a social security system of which as Conservatives we can be proud.”
Joseph Rowntree Foundation analysis shows around a fifth of all working-age families in the country would be affected by the cut.
Labour’s shadow Work and Pensions secretary Jonathan Reynolds MP said: “The Government’s £1,000 a year cut will be a hammer blow to millions of families, hitting the lowest paid hardest and hurting our economic recovery.”
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