Rother Valley MP slams Budget as '˜insulting' with nothing to help the vulnerable

It is now clear austerity is not over, the cuts to social security will continue and the Chancellor gave no assurances that departments won’t face further cuts.

Eight years of destructive austerity has damaged the economy, damaged people’s incomes and damaged essential services.

There was nothing in the Budget to repair the damage to schools, the police and local councils.

The money promised for Universal Credit is less than a third of the £7 billion of social security cuts still to come and the announcement on work allowances reverses little more than half the cuts made in 2015.

And meanwhile, whilst hitting the most vulnerable in society, at the same time, the Tories will have handed out £110 billion in corporate tax giveaways by the end of this Parliament.

It was also utterly insulting to parents and teachers for the Chancellor to talk about ‘little extras’ when school budgets have been cut by billions and head teachers are begging parents for money for basic supplies like books and stationery.

The amount he has offered is barely a tenth of the £3.5 billion that the Tories have cut from capital funding year on year, leaving thousands of children in leaking and crumbling classrooms.

Even worse, the Chancellor offered just a handful of councils less than a million pounds a year each in long-term funding for children’s services, which are now at breaking point.

And there was not a single penny for further education or adult education, even as spending on skills has halved.

This is immoral and Labour will end this unfairness and end austerity.