Patricia Gibson MP has hit out at the UK Government following the recent decision to introduce £4.4 billion worth of cuts to tax credits.

Despite threats from many Tory MPs that they would vote against the Bill, Chancellor George Osborne managed to quell a possible rebellion and ensured that the measures passed by 325 votes to 290.

David Davis, the former shadow home secretary, and Stephen McPartland, were the only Tory MPs to vote against the government alongside the SNP, Labour and the Democratic Unionists.

Chancellor George Osborne’s cut in working age benefits of £12 billion has faced harsh criticism from opposition parties and poverty campaigners who highlight a report by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) which shows that 8.4 million households with one paid worker will lose on average £550 a year – even after any financial boost from the Government’s soon to be introduced ‘National Living Wage’.

The SNP MP said: “Tax credits play an essential role in topping up the wages of those who do not earn enough to make ends meet. This attack on benefits paid to those at the bottom end of the pay scale flies in the face of Tory claims that they want to help ‘strivers not skivers’.

"No one would deny that successive UK Governments have saddled us with £1,500 million of debt which needs to be reduced. Understandably, the debate about how to achieve that is exhaustive and divisive.

"Nonetheless, the fact remains that we live in a country where the Government will write blank cheques to renew nuclear weapons, turn a blind eye to large scale tax avoidance and cut taxes for millionaires whilst attempting to balance the books by removing the already meagre benefits relied upon by millions of ordinary people."

As of April, cuts to tax credits will see the earnings level above which they are withdrawn reduced from an annual income of £6,420 to £3,850.