In Jeremy Hunt ’s long and grim budget statement one word was missing - “sorry”.
Rather than it being a budget to help us get though the cost of living crisis, it was instead an attempt to mop up a Tory economic catastrophe.
He should have said sorry for, not just 12 weeks of economic chaos, but for 12 years of mismanagement which has left our economy so weak.
But it wasn’t just an apology that was missing.
Meaningful help to get through this difficult winter was missing too, leaving too many to struggle.
This wasn’t a budget for you.
Instead, the Chancellor decided to blame everything and everyone else as he plunged the people of the UK back into an age of austerity.
And let’s be clear it isn’t Rishi Sunak or his friends in the Tory party who will be paying the price for this budget.
Billions of pounds of tax rises and cuts is not ‘consolidation’ – it is a hammer-blow to the people of this country.
Never again can the Tories claim to be the party of economic competence.
They are making you – the working people of this country – pay for their failure.
As a recession hits their message to people struggling is ‘you’re on your own’.
All while they continue to let energy giants rake in billions of profits as bills rise.
We must never let the Tories forget that this is an economic crisis made in Downing St - being paid for by working people.
Instead of solutions - Jeremy Hunt’s cuts budget will leave us lurching from crisis to crisis with falling living standards and low growth.
After today, people will be asking themselves: Am I and my family better off with this Tory Government?
The answer is unequivocally no.
The SNP will want to pretend that only Scotland is frustrated and angry with this rotten Tory government and only Scots want change.
But, from Lanarkshire to Liverpool, from Glasgow to London, across the UK there is a majority for change.
Change is coming. Scotland can lead the way and help elect a Labour government that will deliver it.
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