Osborne’s sweet and sour budget - Kramer

Commenting on the Budget, Liberal Democrat Economics Spokesperson Susan Kramer said:

"This is George Osborne's sweet and sour budget. His sugar tax may seem sweet, but his hidden cuts are sour. This is not a long term economic plan, it is a short term economic scam.

"He has missed his targets and is making ordinary people pick up the pieces. Once again his words simply don't match his actions.

"He said he wouldn't fix the figures to fit the plan, but he has cut vital spending to fit his own arbitrary and unnecessary spending surplus.

"He said his budget would act now so we don't pay later. But he has pencilled in £3.5 billion of cuts to vital services for future years, without the decency to say where it will come from.

"He said he would help young people, but he is passing huge additional spending on to schools meaning less money to spend on teachers.

"He is giving welcome help to small businesses, but lifting the money directly from the public services of the communities in which they trade. That's not pro-growth, that is pro-decline."