Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper used a visit to Leeds residential home Donisthorpe Hall to attack government cutbacks effecting the amount the elderly have to pay towards care.

After touring the premises, the Pontefract and Castleford MP said: "It's lovely to see the wonderful facilities here but at this present time it's very troubling with government cuts that are putting these facilities at risk. People here are justly worried."

The scale of the cuts was putting institutions like Donisthorpe and local councils in an invidious position.

"Councils are being forced to make more than 25 per cent cuts - one pound in every four taken away from them despite the fact that they are providing really important services for the most vulnerable people in society."

She thought the Coalition was taking the wrong approach by cutting too fast and too far, hitting both public services and jobs. "In the end that is going to cost us more, because you finish up with more people on the dole.

"And you get more spending on unemployment benefits, instead of putting that money into jobs and getting people paying taxes and getting businesses growing and so on."

Donisthorpe deputy chairman Andrew Brown says the cutbacks could cost the home £250,000 annually. Two-thirds of its 183 residents have a funded place, the remainder pay privately.