Serious indeed for George, given he plainly wants to take over from Dave
The excuse about "getting the deficit down" is less likely to wash with people, ironically now that the economy is doing better. Added to the fact that this is an attack not just on "hard working people" whom the Tories claim to love, but on self-employed "hard working people" too as we've seen.
Plus the fact of course that before the election Dave swore blind they wouldn't cut tax credits.