David Cameron stands by beleaguered George Osborne

British prime minister David Cameron has signalled his support for his beleaguered chancellor after he was forced to abandon £4bn (€5.1bn) of benefit cuts for the disabled.

Asked if Mr Cameron still had full confidence in George Osborne in the wake of the dramatic resignation of work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith, his official spokeswoman replied: “Absolutely.”

She said the government would now bring forward alternative proposals to the cuts to Personal Independence Payments (PIPs) — announced by Mr Osborne in the Budget on Wednesday — in the Autumn Statement towards the end of the year.

Mr Duncan Smith stormed out of the government on Friday, complaining that he was again being forced to make cuts to the most vulnerable while Mr Osborne was handing tax cuts to the better-off.

Downing Street flatly rejected suggestions that Mr Cameron was happy for the chancellor to cut welfare payments to the less well-off as they did not vote for the government.

“He doesn’t accept that. We don’t accept that,” the spokeswoman said.

“This government has been very clear that we want to focus on how we, as a country, live within our means while making sure that we are supporting those who are most vulnerable.”

She said the decision to wait until the autumn statement — usually held in November or December — to set out alternatives to cutting PIP meant they had a breathing space in which to deal with the issue.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said Mr Osborne should be “considering his position” following the unravelling of his budget plans in the wake of what was a barrage of criticism from Tory MPs.

“His Budget simply doesn’t add up and it unravelled within hours of him presenting it. This isn’t the first time a George Osborne budget has unravelled,” Mr Corbyn told BBC1’s Breakfast programme.

“It seems to me we need to look at the very heart of this government, at its incompetence, at the way it puts forward proposals that simply don’t add up and expects the most needy in our society to take the hit for them.”

With Conservative MPs in turbulent mood, No 10 sought to defuse potential Commons revolts over the so-called tampon tax and Vat on solar panels.