Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg came under fire on Saturday for taking a skiing holiday in a £7 million, 20-room chalet as the latest round of austerity budget measures kick in.
The Liberal Democrat leader has spent a week in the luxury Swiss resort of Davos, the Daily Mirror and Daily Mail said, at the chalet which is owned by his parents.
The Mirror said one-time ski instructor Clegg was “taking the piste”.
The paper said he had “no shame” skiing in a posh resort “while at home families endure plummeting living standards”.
This year the Conservative-Lib Dem coalition government is working to remove what it calls the “spare room subsidy” for council accomodation tenants on housing benefit “whose accomodation is larger than they need”, bringing them into line with recipients in the private rented sector.
Labour has branded the move a “bedroom tax”.
Len McCluskey, general secretary of the Unite trade union, said of Clegg: “His skiing trip will rankle with people struggling with whether to spend on eating or heating this week.
“And while he’s been sleeping in luxury, hundreds of thousands face losing because of the coalition’s cruel ‘bedroom tax’,” the Mirror quoted him as saying.
“Once again, this government wastes no opportunity to remind us that they have little care or concern for struggles endured by ordinary people.”
Labour vice-chairman Michael Dugher said: “While hundreds of thousands are hit by the bedroom tax, Nick Clegg will be putting his feet up in his 20-room mansion. Sounds like he has a lot of ‘spare rooms to subsidise’.”
A spokesman for the deputy PM said: “Nick Clegg and his family have gone on a holiday during the Easter school break.”
Clegg accused of 'taking the piste' with ski break
