Surbiton’s Baroness Jane Campbell has been successful in stopping tax credit cuts after her heartfelt parliamentary speech.

Wheelchair-bound Lady Campbell, who suffers from spinal muscular atrophy, had said tax credits would “dramatically reduce the incomes of disabled people in low-paid employment”.

This week the Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osbourne made a u-turn on tax credits announced in the autumn statement on Wednesday, November 25.

The Commons voted to cut tax credits in October, which opponents claimed would leave millions of families £1,300 a year worse off, but the legislation was delayed in a vote at the House of Lords.

Speaking in the House of Commons Mr Osborne said: “I have had representations that these changes to tax credits should be phased in. I have listened to the concerns. I hear and understand them.

“Because I have been able to announce today an improvement in the public finances, the simplest thing to do is not to phase these changes in, but to avoid them altogether.”

The scrapping of tax credit cuts was not the only surprise to come from the chancellor’s statement.

Despite early fears, no cuts to police budgets were announced and the NHS was allocated an extra £8bn in funding over the next five years.

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe said: “Above all, we want to protect the people of London and make this the safest global city.

“So greater financial stability after the £600m of savings we have made in the past few years is very welcome. It will help us keep the public safe.”

Money raised from the controversial “tampon tax” – thought to be in the region of £15m a year – was also pledged to women’s charities.