The Budget offered an opportunity to help people back to work, create a fairer Britain and reward those who had served their country during Covid.
Rishi Sunak failed to do this.
The Chancellor’s slick delivery could not mask the fact this was a Budget dyed in the deepest of Tory blues.
For all his claims about protecting people’s jobs and livelihoods the measures to help young people back to work fell way short of what is required.
There was nothing in today’s statement to support families, improve childcare or to tackle the social care crisis.
What is your view? Have your say in the comments section
Frontline workers did not even get a penny’s worth of thanks for their unstinting service during the Covid outbreak.
To rub salt in the wound, they will be hit by a stealth rise in income tax, along with millions of other low and middle-income workers.
Millions who rely on the £20 Universal Credit increase are now set to lose this money in September just when the jobless total is expected to reach its peak.
Tory claims to have ended austerity have also been proved baseless. There was no extra money for hard-stretched councils, with £4billion of additional public sector cuts – on top of the £10billion announced in the autumn.
We needed a recovery plan for the whole country.
We got a patchwork series of announcements that fails families, fails small firms and fails workers.
End bitter row
Buckingham Palace is right to launch an investigation into claims of bullying by the Duchess of Sussex.
The staff of the Royal Household should be treated with the same respect and have the same rights as employees in any organisation.
Yet there are usually two sides to every argument and we should reserve judgement until the inquiry has been completed.
The best thing the royals could do is to end their public war of words. This bitter row would be unseemly at the best of times.
It is especially undignified and insensitive when their subjects are mourning loved ones lost to coronavirus and Prince Philip remains ill in hospital.
