Tory party chairman Grant Shapps faced embarrassment when his own Conservative council used the term 'bedroom tax' in a leaflet.
Mr Shapps has long protested about the use of the phrase, which he insists on calling the spare room subsidy.
Asked by his local paper, the Welwyn Hatfield Times, whether the council would face censure for the slip, he said: 'I'm not jumping up and down about it.
'I'd just point out that it's a misleading term and that looking after the most vulnerable in society means helping those who are excluded from housing entirely, which is why the spare room subsidy is assisting with bringing down the overall waiting list for the first time.'
But Cllr Kieran Thorpe, leader of the council's Labour group, hit back: 'The term spare room subsidy is as misleading and senseless as the policy itself.
'It's unbelievable that anyone in the coalition thought that a process that takes money from the poor and disabled would be classed as a subsidy.'
