George Osborne facing double backlash over disabled space and Philpott case

George Osborne’s aides today stressed he did not “condone” his official car being parked in a disabled space when he popped into a motorway services to get a McDonald’s.

The Chancellor was hit by a double backlash today over controversial comments on the Philpott case and his vehicle being photographed in a disabled area at the Magor motorway services on the M4 near Newport as he returned from a trip to Wales earlier this week.

A senior Tory source said the vehicle had been reversed into the berth while Mr Osborne was inside buying a meal at McDonald’s. “George does not condone this in any way,” the source said.

He insisted that the Chancellor had got out of the car at the front of the services, at a legal point, and had been unaware that it was in a disabled space when he jumped back in before the car headed off.

The latest twist emerged as the welfare war between Labour and the Tories escalated. Shadow chancellor Ed Balls accused Mr Osborne of “nasty and divisive” tactics for linking the case of child killer Mick Philpott to the coalition’s benefits shake-up.

Father-of-17 Philpott, who was jailed for life for killing six of his children in a fire, lived in a council house in Derby and claimed thousands of pounds in benefit.

The Chancellor stressed that Philpott was to blame for the “horrendous crimes”. But he also argued: “It’s right we ask questions as a Government, a society and as taxpayers, why we are subsidising lifestyles like these.”