Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls MP with Nia Griffith MP
The message of George Osborne’s Budget this week was clear: growth down, unemployment up, borrowing up and millionaires laughing all the way to the bank. This was more of the same Budget from a downgraded Chancellor.
David Cameron and George Osborne’s economic plan is failing, but they cannot bring themselves to admit it. They have no clue how to get the economy moving and too many people in our country are paying the price.
Our economy is flatlining, unemployment is going up, prices are rising faster than wages, and the government is now set to borrow a staggering £245 billion more than they planned to pay for this economic failure.
We needed a bold and radical Budget to kickstart our economy and help millions on low and middle incomes struggling with the cost of living.
We needed a bank bonus tax to fund a jobs guarantee for young people, a new lower 10p starting rate of tax to ease the squeeze and investment to build 100,000 affordable homes and get construction workers back to work.
Instead in 16 days time 13,000 millionaires will get a tax cut worth an average £100,000, while millions struggle to get by day to day and face cuts to tax credits, child benefit and the bedroom tax.
We need change if we’re going to rebuild Britain, but David Cameron and George Osborne can’t deliver it.
Today it is clearer than ever before that only a One Nation Labour Government can deliver the change our country needs to make the economy fairer and stronger and help people get on in life.