Even the House of Lords couldn’t stomach Osborne’s tax credit cuts | Polly Toynbee

The chancellor will still take 4.5bn from the low-paid in tax credit cuts, but the rebellion is a political setback

The drama of the House of Lords vote was essentially an absurdist spectacle. The Tory press harrumphed against the outrageous impertinence of unelected peers, the government was browbeaten with dark threats. But since the Tories have no intention of reforming the 800-heavy upper house, Liberal Democrat and Labour peers who are committed to an elected chamber are absolutely free to sabotage its present idiotic conventions. And so they did. After strong criticisms of tax credit cuts from all sides of the house, they voted for a delay, demanding that George Osborne fully reveal the impact of the cuts.

The constitutional sideshow highlights the full monstrosity of the government's benefit cuts: worse is still to come. Ministers and minions have been sent out to spread shameless deceptions about the impact of cuts announced so far. Osborne refuses to produce an impact assessment with a distributional analysis of who is hit and how hard. Andrew Tyrie, the Treasury select committee chair, has lost patience with evasive and bamboozling figures designed to mislead and wants a full document by 31 October. Don't hold your breath for straight answers.

Related: Tax credits vote: PM accuses Lords of breaking constitutional convention

There is no tweak to fix this - except to put the well-targeted tax credits back into the pockets of those who need them