Boris Johnson doesn’t need a mask to hide his contempt for Ian Blackford... though he was wearing one to comply with Covid rules.
During the Budget response, the Prime Minister barracked the SNP leader across a chamber, accusing him of talking “utter rubbish”.
But infuriated Blackford replied with righteous anger on behalf of those at the bottom who will miss the Covid recovery express.
For all the PR build-up to Rishi Sunak’s Budget, the Chancellor robs the poor of £20 a week.
The SNP leader punctured Sunak’s image, chastising the Tories for “the b*****s they made of Brexit” for good measure.
The failure to support those who suffered most in the crisis, Blackford said, “goes to the heart of the economic choices of this government”.
Labour’s Keir Starmer wasn’t shy either, nailing the Chancellor’s lack of ambition. He asked, essentially, have we all been through this year-long crisis just for this?
Where was the plan to rebuild the NHS foundations, to fix the broken windows of society, to repair the roof on the environment in this place we call home?
The answers are in the small print. Buried in Budget documents are cuts in day-to-day spending.
For all Sunak’s glib videos and self-promotion it is the public services and the poor that will suffer.
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