Kate Hollern MP: 'Too little too late' in Tory Budget

The Chancellor’s Budget has lifted the lid on 14 years of Tory economic failure.

Taxes are still rising, prices are still going up in the shops, and mortgages are higher.

The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) confirms this will be the worst Parliament on record for living standards, and the only Parliament on record where living standards have fallen.

Real pay has gone up by just £17 a week over 13 years of Conservative government. Under Labour, wages rose by £183 a week over 13 years.

Even the Chancellor’s more promising announcements, such as the Government’s U-turn on its non-dom policy, are simply too little, too late.

Debt has almost tripled under the Conservatives from £1 trillion to just under £2.6 trillion.

The tax burden is at a 70 year high, rising every year of the forecast period.

New Economic Foundation analysis highlights that a 2p cut in National Insurance contributions disproportionately favours high-income households, London, and the South East.

This cut is worth £608 and £523 respectively, compared to just £392 to a household in the North West.

With 40 per cent of the benefits of from this change going to the richest fifth, and only three per cent going to the poorest fifth, this is a Budget that simply does not address our society’s major challenges.

Deepening regional inequality is harming the country’s prospects and stifling opportunity and entrenching greater health and wealth inequalities across the UK.

According to the Centre for Cities Outlook 2024, Blackburn is now one of six UK locations where over a third of children are in households in relative poverty. In 2014, there were none.

The Tories have presided over a 6.3 per cent increase in the proportion of children living in relative poverty in Blackburn.

Shamefully, we are now a society with around 3.8 million people living in destitution, unable to meet their most basic physical needs to stay warm, dry, clean and fed.

By no means whatsoever do the Chancellor’s plans do anything to address the real needs of the people.

Hunt’s choices are at the expense of critical investment in our deteriorating public services, which continue to be starved of resources.

Education, the NHS, and local government are crying out for proper investment.

It is welcome that the Government has extended the Household Support Fund (HSF) but, given that three-quarters of councils expect hardship to increase further in their area over the next 12 months, the Government must secure a sustainable successor to the HSF.

Core spending power in 2024/25 has been cut by 23.3 per cent in real terms compared to 2010/11, and many councils have already had to implement major cuts due to the uncertainty, which has been compounded by the sixth one-year settlement in a row.

The last 22 government fiscal statements, dating back to 2014, have promised higher wages, higher skills, or higher growth – and this Budget confirms that the Tories are still extremely vulnerable on the economy, after 14 years of economic failure.

The Chancellor promised a “Budget for long-term growth” but this is actually a Budget that reflects long-term decline under the Tories.

Labour will support everyone to help them develop the skills to thrive in the changing world of work, to make work pay with a genuine living wage and provide a new deal for working people.

That’s the change Labour will offer – and it is what we will be offering the British people this year. We need a General Election now.

Kate Hollern is the Labour MP for Blackburn.