Conservative Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith has spoken about potentially cutting the welfare budget further, by up to £10 billion pounds, through narrowing access to child benefit and stopping housing benefits for under-25s.

It is not government policy to cap benefits for families with more than two children or to withdraw housing benefit from under-25s. The Liberal Democrats have not agreed to either proposal.

The Liberal Democrats have not signed up to £10bn of cuts in the welfare budget and no agreement has been reached.

Nick Clegg said: “The Conservatives of course are entirely entitled to set out their stall about what we do as a country as we have to tighten our belts further, as we indeed were we at our party conference. My attitude has always been very simple, very straightforward, which is that as we have to make more savings as a country – as we do – you start at the top and work your way down, not the other way around.

“Nothing has been agreed within government on the detail of any further changes; these are the kind of things that we will thrash out within government in the months ahead.”

In Preston we have some highly deprived areas and we cannot support further welfare cuts at this time.