Conservative Government Ministers have only themselves to blame for the political humiliation that overtook them this week. The House of Lords rejected a key component of the Government’s reforms of the welfare system contained in a regulation tabled by means of a statutory instrument. The Chancellor of the Exchequer planned to reduce the support, called tax credits, given to the group that has become known as “the working poor”. The average family in receipt of these benefits would lose around £1,300 a year, even taking into account staged increases in the statutory Minimum Wage over the next four years – the so-called National Living Wage – and other changes such as reductions in income tax. During the May general election campaign, Tory spokesmen inc