Now it's clear why David Cameron didn't want us to know about his secret £8bn of welfare cuts

His plans to cut the key benefits that working people rely on has just been exposed by one of his coalition partners

Cameron wields a pair of scissors (Rex)

After five years watching this Tory Government fail working people, you’d think there was nothing left to surprise you. The last couple of days have proved this wrong.

Not content with a record which has hit working families hard – £1,600 a year worse off than they were in 2010, while millionaires have been given a tax break – we now know they’re drawing up a plan to go even further.

The latest revelations – exposed by the Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander yesterday – show that the Tories plan to cut welfare by a further £8bn, and would cut the tax credits and child benefits that working people rely on.

David Cameron was challenged on these plans during last night’s Question Time Election Leaders Special. He was given the chance to rule it out – but he didn’t. Neither have the senior Tories trooping through the TV studios who have been asked the same question: “Will you rule out hitting family budgets with your extreme cuts plans?”

The answer from all of them has been the same: they won’t. Why? Because they can’t.

The truth is the Tories have plans so extreme – they want to take this year's cuts and double them next year – that they can’t be delivered without hitting working families. That means another blow to the mother and fathers already struggling with everyday bills like childcare and electricity after five years of the Tories.

If David Cameron gets back into Downing Street again, working families will pay the price. The cuts he’s planning would mean a family with one child on £23,000 a year worse off to the tune of £1,600 a year. His plans would also mean cuts to Child Benefit which would see 4.3m families losing over £1,000 a year.

This is the plan the Tories have been hiding. It’s a plan which would take thousands of pounds away from millions of families. This is what they’ll do if they’re given the chance.

So when people go out to vote on 7 May, the questions on the ballot paper will be: Who will stand up for families? Who will protect the child benefit and tax credits they rely on to make ends meet?

It won’t be David Cameron. He’s got a record of letting down working families and we now know he’ll do it again.