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2011 Budget: the political reaction
Chancellor George Osborne has presented his 2011 ‘pro-growth’ Budget to a lively House of Commons.
Describing his Budget as a ‘Budget for growth’, the Chancellor asserted that the measures would ‘inject fuel into the tank of the British economy’.
However, Labour leader Ed Miliband seized on the fact that the UK’s economic growth forecasts have been significantly revised down:
‘One fact says it all and he couldn’t bring himself to say it: growth down last year, this year and next year’, he commented.
Cutting fuel duty while increasing VAT was also, he said, a ‘classic Tory con’.
Mr Miliband also criticised the Chancellor’s strategy for tackling the UK deficit, for going ‘too far and too fast’.
Meanwhile, the Liberal Democrats also came under fire from the Labour leader, who described party leader Nick Clegg as an ‘accomplice’.
‘When it comes to the economy, the man who coined the phrase ‘alarm clock Britain’ has the snooze button well and truly on’, he said.