The Budget made this Conservative Government’s priorities clear.

Slashing the cost of short-haul flights as we gear up to host COP26.

Hitting working people with the highest sustained tax burden in peacetime whilst big companies like Amazon still don’t pay their fair share.

Rishi Sunak’s mates might be loading their trollies with cheaper champagne, but for thousands of Hornsey & Wood Green residents struggling to pay their bills it’s going to be a tough winter.

£6 billion taken out of the pockets of some of the poorest people in this country, and just £2 billion offered up to compensate.  That’s billions that now won’t be spent in our local economy or on paying soaring energy bills.

Labour would ease the cost-of-living pressure on households and businesses right now. We’d scrap VAT on domestic energy bills for six months to help people through a tough, cold winter and cut business rates to restore our struggling high streets.

Tinkering round the edges isn’t enough when 11 years of Conservative Governments have weakened the very foundations of our society.  Fewer police on our streets, growing class sizes and long waits to get hospital treatment.  We’ve lost around 1,000 Sure Start Children’s Centres since 2010 and the funding announced for Family Hubs doesn’t even take us close to where we were.

It’s quite something to watch the Chancellor boast about returning per pupil funding to 2010 levels by 2024-25 as if that’s an achievement.

It’s no achievement.

It’s a generation of kids failed by consecutive Conservative Governments.  A generation of kids who’ve seen their school funding slashed, special educational needs support disappear and youth centres close.  A generation who’ve faced sky-high tuition fees, got through a pandemic and gone out into a world of insecure, zero-hours work with the hope of ever affording their own home an impossible dream.

The Chancellor was silent on the Office for Budget Responsibility’s finding that his Government’s botched Brexit is “twice as bad” for Britain’s economy than COVID.  He spent more time talking about slashing champagne prices then he did about tackling soaring fuel costs, childcare costs or supporting carers.

Working people are carrying the can for Government mismanagement and waste and this budget was a missed opportunity.

Watch my speech in the Budget Debate here: