The Chancellor’s Budget earlier this month has lifted the lid on 14 years of Tory economic failure.

Taxes are still rising, prices are still going up in the shops, and mortgages are higher.

Nothing Jeremy Hunt said in the Budget changes that.

Labour believes the tax burden on working people is too high. A 2p cut in National Insurance contributions is welcome, but it does not make up for 14 years of failure.

This Budget confirms the UK has the highest tax burden in 70 years.

For every 10p extra working people will pay in tax under the Tories plan, they will only be getting 5p back as a result of the combined cuts to National Insurance.  Households will be £870 worse off under Sunak’s tax plan on average.

The Chancellor at the Budget indicated that he is seeking to abolish National Insurance Contributions.  Such promises of £46 billion of unfunded tax cuts would leave a gaping black hole in the public finances.

Looking at how that might work, how can the Ministers rule out pensioners having to pay any more income tax under the Tories’ supposed plans to abolish National Insurance?

This exposes the clear risk to everyone of five more years of the Conservatives. They will gamble with the public finances and working people and pensioners will be forced to pay the price.

This Tory government hasn’t learned anything since Liz Truss crashed the economy and sent people’s mortgages spiralling.

The Conservatives have wrecked the public finances: Debt has almost tripled under the Conservatives from £1 trillion to just under £2.6 trillion.

The Office of Budget Responsibility confirms this will be the worst Parliament on record for living standards. It will be the only Parliament on record where living standards have fallen. I cannot remember a time the country has been so badly run for so sustained a period.

Labour will never play fast and loose with the nation’s finances. It’s never been clearer, it’s time for a General Election.  We need people in charge who know what they’re doing and this absolute Tory shower obviously do not.

Cllr Michael Jones

Leader, Crawley Borough Council