A shadow minister paid a visit to a Conservative stronghold this morning on the day her party made a national announcement criticising the government.  

The visit by shadow work and pensions secretary Rachel Reeves coincided with the Labour's news that the government, namely Iain Duncan Smith's department, had spent £5 billion more than expected on working tax credits in the last five years. 

The overspend of £152.1 to £157.5 billion between 2010/11 and 2014/15 was revealed in figures by the House of Commons Library. 

Ms Reeves met with around 20 residents this morning at the James Leal Centre in Ray Lodge, Woodford Green, for a Q&A session before giving a speech on the party's new campaign called 'Tory Welfare Waste'. 

Joined by Redbridge Council's deputy leader councillor Wes Streeting, the Leeds West MP told the audience: "This huge overspend is the result of the Tory Government’s failure to tackle rising levels of low pay and job insecurity. 

"This failure means spending on in-work benefits, including housing benefit, is set to continue rising in real terms well into the next parliament.

"This is yet another example of Tory welfare waste. Billions more of taxpayers’ money spent on in-work benefits, 900,000 people waiting for a combined 118,000 years in a huge backlog for sickness and disability benefit assessments. 

Ms Reeves hopes her time in Woodford will help towards Wes Streeting being elected as Ilford North MP in next year's general election. 

A Conversative spokeswoman said: "This is desperate stuff from Labour – the party which let the benefits bill double, including a 340 per cent rise in tax credit spending.

"What’s more, they’ve opposed every single step we’ve taken to put things right. No one will trust a word Labour say when it comes to getting welfare spending down." 

Mr Duncan Smith announced yesterday that the bulk of its controversial flagship welfare reform programme 'Universal Credit' will be rolled out by 2019.