The Tories could cut child benefit or stop millions of families receiving it, Government chief whip Michael Gove admitted last night. Mr Gove, the former education secretary, said he could not rule out further cuts to child benefit to reduce the deficit. Asked on the BBC's Newsnight if he could confirm that there would be 'no more changes to child benefit', Mr Gove said: 'No I can't say that.' Conservative chief whip Michael Gove admitted the Tories could cut child benefit or stop millions of families receiving it . Mr Gove said the Tories would not cut benefits for the disabled or pensioners – but refused to rule out cuts to child benefit. He said: 'There is a huge amount of welfare spending that can be reduced without having any impact on people who have disabilities. 'We're not going to hit, or take money away from, the disabled. We're going to protect people who are pensioners. What we are going to do.' Mr Gove was asked specifically: 'There will be no more changes to child benefit. Can you say that to us?' He said: 'It's not our policy at the moment. But the thing I would say is that we've succeeded over the course of the last five years, not just in making departmental cuts which I've alluded to, but in making £21billion worth of welfare cuts. All we're asking to do is to do half of that again.' Rachel Reeves, Labour's shadow work and pensions secretary, said: 'Michael Gove's repeated refusal to rule out child benefit cuts will only add to fears that the Tories have a secret plan to cut support to children. 'The Tories have a £12 billion black hole in their welfare plans it's clear they can't fill without hitting families with children. It's time for the Tories to come clean with the public about their plans to cut child benefit.' The revelation comes after George Osborne last month refused to rule out further cuts to child benefit if the Conservatives win a second term. Asked on the BBC's Newsnight if he could confirm there will be 'no more changes to child benefit', Mr Gove said: 'No I can't say that' Mr Gove's remarks came after  George Osborne last month refused to rule out further cuts to child benefit if the Conservatives win a second term . More than a million households lost out when the Coalition announced that families with one parent earning £50,000 would pay tax on child benefit. Earners over £60,000 lost out altogether. The controversial measure, brought in two and a half years ago as part of the Government's austerity programme, was criticised for penalising single-earner families and stay-at-home mothers. It meant anyone earning less than £50,000 – even a couple on £49,000 each - still received the full entitlement of £20.70 a week for the first child, and £13.70 for every subsequent child. Mr Osborne was asked at a briefing in central London on the economy this morning whether he could 'rule out depriving more people of child benefit, like you've already done in this Parliament?' But the Chancellor appeared to leave the door open to further cuts when asked if he would be 'depriving more families' of the payments which are worth more than £1,000 per year. Mr Osborne did not directly answer about reducing the threshold, only saying that child benefit would not be replaced by the new benefits system Universal Credit, which is being rolled out nationally. The respected think tank the Institute for Fiscal Studies have suggested that increasing Universal Credit for some families and using it instead of child benefit could save £4.8billion a year. The Chancellor said: 'You can judge us on our record in this Parliament. If we wanted to put child benefit into Universal Credit we would have done it when we set up Universal Credit. 'We've got a track record, we've got a plan based on clear principles of making work pay, sharpening work incentives.' Asked again why he did not rule out any type of child benefit cuts, he said: 'I've given you a very clear answer. We've created a welfare system where child poverty is down, inequality is down, we have a record low number of workless households and what we are doing is creating welfare system where it pays to work and we protect the most vulnerable. 'We are going to carry on doing that in the next Parliament. But we can't do any of these things without economic security and a growing economy.' The Conservatives say they would cut £30billion of spending if they win a second term. Of this £12billion would be slashed from the welfare bill, with the rest from government departments and further cracking down on tax avoidance. While the Prime Minister has given a commitment to protect the state pension, few other savings have been set out apart from reducing the cap on a family's annual benefits from £26,000 to £23,000. It is widely speculated that the Conservatives could restrict child benefit to just two children, to save around £2billion a year.
Asked if he could rule out child benefit cuts Mr Gove said: 'I can't say that'
The chief whip ruled out any cuts to pensioner and disability benefits.
Comes after George Osborne paved the way for further cuts to payments.
He refused to rule out rolling Child Benefit into Universal Credit system.