A plan to take real action to tackle the high cost of credit for some of the country’s most vulnerable people suffered a setback in the House of Commons when Tory MPs watered it down.
MPs were debating a plan from Labour MP Stella Creasy to have the Government introduce regulatory powers to cap the price of credit for unsecured lending. Sadly a Tory amendment passed the buck to regulators to “consider putting in place a range of caps.”
Stockton North MP Alex Cunningham, backed the call for action and is disappointed that the Government failed to respond to the call.
“The UK’s poorest people pay the highest price for credit in Europe, with some home credit ‘legal loan sharks’ charging £82 in interest for every £100 lent,” said Alex.
“I was deeply disappointed that the Government supported an amendment to the motion which will delay action to tackle this problem. The Tory-led Government should not be playing politics with backbench business which is meant to express the will of the House.
“I was also surprised that Tory and Lib Dem MPs who originally backed the plan voted to have it watered down and some of them who pledged their support very visibly in the media weren’t even in House of Commons to vote. We saw a lot of fine words but when the time came to take real action and force the Government’s hand on this issue, they chickened out. Clearly the substantial amount of lobbying by the loan shark companies proved very successful.”