Con Demolitionists to the elderly, young and vulnerable

Today, George Osborne delivered a Budget that will throw people out of work, hold back economic growth and damage the public services we all rely on.

The Tories have broken their promise to be fair, with tax increases and benefit cuts that will hit hardest at the people who can least afford it.

The Tory Budget is full of cuts that will hit families hard
George Osborne delivered a Budget that will throw people out of work, hold back economic growth and damage the public services we all rely on. The Tories have broken their promise to be fair, with tax increases and benefit cuts that will hit hardest at the people who can least afford it.

These cuts will affect you, your family and the people around you. This Budget will affect everyone:

•Growth next year would have been higher and unemployment lower with Labour’s responsible, credible plan to halve the deficit over four years
•Increasing VAT from 17.5% to 20%, so that higher prices will be paid in the shops by everyone, from pensioners to the unemployed
•Cuts to tax credits, and cutting back free school meals
•Cuts to the disability living allowance, cuts to help for the jobless
•Freezing Child Benefit for the next three years

It is important to set the record straight, the Tories can't encourage economic growth, and reduce the deficit, by throwing people out of their jobs and abandoning support for business. People will be worrying about what these cuts will mean to their livelihoods, and for the future of their family.

The Tories are trying to duck responsibility for their reckless policies by pretending they have no choice about how deep and how fast they cut spending. But it isn’t true.

The independent Office for Budget Responsibility says today that growth next year would have been higher and unemployment lower with Labour’s responsible, credible plan to halve the deficit over four years.

Instead, the Tories’ cuts are unfair to families and older people: cuts to the disability living allowance, cuts to help for the jobless, cuts to tax credits, cutting back free school meals, and cuts to Child Benefit, which they have frozen for the next three years.

You can help let people near you know how these reckless cuts will hit them hardest

George Osborne claimed in the Budget speech that his tax rises will make the rich pay most. That is not true either. The Tories have increased VAT from 17.5% to 20%, so that higher prices will be paid in the shops by everyone, from pensioners to the unemployed.

The Chancellor says his top priority is cutting the deficit. But in order to get the deficit down, you need to keep economic growth up and you need to keep unemployment down. You don’t get borrowing down by pulling the plug on support for business, throwing people out of work and stifling economic growth.

What the country needed today was a Budget to support economic growth, protect jobs and cut the deficit fairly. Instead the Tories gave us a reckless Budget that pulls the rug out from under the recovery. And they couldn’t have done it without the support of the Lib Dems, who have let down everyone who voted for them in the election just a few weeks ago.