COUNCILLORS in Worcester have spoken of their anguish over controversial tax credit cuts - saying it will "plunge thousands of children into poverty".

A debate has taken place over whether Worcester City Council's managing director should intervene by writing to Chancellor George Osborne about it.

It was voted down 19-16 during a full council meeting last night, but not before heated exchanges between Labour and Conservative councillors about the impact it could have on the city.

As your Worcester News revealed in October more than 22,300 Worcestershire families faced being hit by Mr Osborne's proposals to wipe £15 billion off tax credits from April, before it was blocked by the House of Lords last month.

That included some 4,300 Worcester families with children, many of whom faced reductions as big as £1,300 a year according to national estimates.

Former Worcester Labour parliamentary candidate Councillor Joy Squires brought a motion to the meeting asking MD Sheena Ramsey to write to Mr Osborne, David Cameron and city MP Robin Walker to express "deep concern" and ask for it to be scrapped.

"Each one of us will have many hundreds of people in our wards who will be affected by this, in some cases it will be thousands," she said.

"Whichever way you look at it these tax cuts are bad news for Worcester, it'll drive thousands of our residents into poverty and we can't let that happen."

Labour's finance spokesman Councillor Richard Boorn said it would leave "three million people £1,350 worse off" and took a swipe at the Government for overseeing the "worst current account deficit in the industrialised world".

It was voted out after Conservative councillors said Mr Osborne was re-thinking the details anyway - with some claiming the Labour group was wasting the council's time debating Westminster issues, and others challenging the criticism over the economy.

Conservative Councillor Marc Bayliss, the deputy leader, said: "We've got the strongest growth in the G8, we have no inflation, even minus inflation and unemployment in this city as its lowest historical level."

He said under the old Labour government "in-work poverty grew by 20 per cent", saying there is "a clear case for reform" with the current welfare system.

During the debate he also questioned the reason for the motion being tabled last night, saying "foxy Foster", as in former Labour MP Mike Foster who lost his seat in 2010, might be influencing it.

Labour's Matthew Lamb said the cuts proposal was so bad "even The Sun newspaper" came out against it, while Tory Chris Mitchell said it was not something councillors should get involved in, insisting it was a Westminster debate - a stance Councillor Squires called "shocking".

"He's got to find the money somewhere, tough decisions have got to be made sometimes," he added.

"And children don't thrive because of tax credits, they thrive through good parenting - I was brought up by a very good single parent who taught me to work hard and get on."

Some Labour members shouted out "shameful" and "disgraceful" at the end of the vote.

After the Lords' intervention Mr Osborne has taken his plans back for a re-draft.