EAST Lancashire's lone Tory MP launched a bitter attack on yesterday's "slow fuse" Budget which he predicted would explode in the faces of local people.

Ribble Valley's Nigel Evans said the Windfall Tax would cause fuel and water charges to rise, and this would hit pensioners and families especially hard.

For Chancellor Gordon Brown to say otherwise was a New Labour "big con".

The overall effect was a tax raising Budget by the back door which would hit people in some months time.

He also warned that the government would try and make up the shortfall in its financial figures by trying to cut defence spending - something he would vigorously oppose because of the effect on jobs in the area.

But local Labour MPs defended a Budget that Hyndburn's Greg Pope said he would be "proud to vote for".

The government Whip said: "It's a Budget for jobs, for education and for health.

"It offers young unemployed people in my constituency the hope of work and provides much need cash for schools and hospitals."

Pendle Labour MP Gordon Prentice said: "It's a massive fillip. Just the tonic the economy needs.

"I'm particularly pleased at the extra money for health and education and the welfare to work proposals."

North-West Tory MP and former Treasury Minister Michael Jack predicted that the measure on the windfall tax and pension fund tax credits were bad news for the elderly.

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