Rachel Reeves MP, Labour’s Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, responding to the letter by 27 bishops attacking David Cameron’s welfare policies, said:

“This letter should be a wake-up call to David Cameron. His government’s policies are making life harder for families with a cost-of-living crisis making workers £1600 worse off and the bedroom tax forcing hundreds of thousands to food banks.

"This Tory-led Government’s welfare reforms have penalised, rather than helped, those doing the right thing.”