大象传媒

Labour's Owen Smith and Conservative MP Chris Philp discussed the so-called bedroom tax, following a court ruling that it was discriminatory.

The Court of Appeal said the spare room subsidy, as ministers call it, discriminates against a domestic violence victim and the family of a disabled teenager.

Mr Smith, shadow work and pensions secretary, said the policy should be dropped, and criticised the government for planning to appeal the court's decision.

But Mr Philp, a member of the Treasury Select Committee, said: "Most people with disabilities are exempted from the removal of the spare room subsidy.

"A very small number of cases have slipped through the cracks and that it is exactly what the discretionary housing payment fund is there to sort out.鈥�

Defending the "wider principle" of the policy, he told Andrew Neil it was about "fairness".