We were all expecting to see the punishing cuts to tax credits that Liberal Democrats and others have been fighting.

Whilst it is welcome to see these short-sighted changes scrapped (at least for now), don’t fall for the illusion that this is an act of mercy. George Osborne is still committed to cutting another £12 billion from the welfare bill – he’ll just be choosing a different group of vulnerable people to target.

When Liberal Democrats were in government, we blocked cuts like these every single year. We demanded impact analysis exercises to show exactly how the burden would fall on different income groups and ensure that the poorest were protected from the full brunt of budget cuts. Whenever cuts were made that affected lower-income groups in Britain, we also made sure that a matching contribution was demanded of the richest. All of this is now gone, and our society will inevitably be poorer for it.

In the coming days and weeks, we are going to see exactly where George Osborne’s £12 billion axe will fall and, regardless of party or political affiliation, it will make for grim reading.

Liberal Democrats at every level of government, from the House of Lords to your local council, will do everything we can to oppose the shocking imposition of such punitive cuts on the support and services that ordinary men and women up and down the country rely on the most.

I hope the same can be said of Labour, but if today’s pantomime of john McDonnell waving Mao’s “Little Red Book” at the despatch box is indicative of their new approach, then we’ve been left with an ‘Official’ opposition treating this whole process as nothing more than a joke.

I think it’s clear from today that, when it comes to both government and opposition, the people of Britain desperately deserve better.