BRIDGET PHILLIPSON MP: Budget does not answer problems as economy stumbles from crisis to crisis with public services in tatters

Nothing Jeremy Hunt said in his budget changes the fact that the Conservatives have failed on the economy and working people are worse off. Photo by UK Parliament/Maria Unger/PA Wire

The issue is that the Conservatives can’t fix our broken economy or public services, because the Conservatives are the reason they are broken.

Take childcare as an example. Last spring I shone a light on the system failing children and working parents alike and committed Labour to building an early years system that provides choices for parents and better life chances for children.

The Chancellor was backed into a corner and in response, he promised ‘the most significant improvements to childcare provision in a decade’.

But now the Conservatives risk crashing the early years system, just like they crashed the economy. Not enough places. Not enough staff.

A year on, because of this botched pledge without a plan, 180,000 childcare places across England could be at risk from more than 3,000 nursery closures.

A recipe for calamity that could send providers to the wall, force parents into debt, and leave our economy on the path of anaemic growth.

This typifies the shambolic approach of this government and demonstrates a wider point: after 14 years of Tory chaos and instability, working people are worse off.

Monthly mortgage payments are on the up, prices are still rising in the shops and the tax burden is piled on working people.

There have been 25 Tory tax rises since the last election and the average family will be £1,200 worse off under the Conservatives’ tax plan.

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

But under Keir Starmer’s leadership, the Labour Party has changed. Labour is now the party of economic security.

Labour has a long-term plan to grow our economy to deliver more jobs, more investment and put more money in people’s pockets.

Labour will set tough new spending rules to keep the cost of living and mortgage rates as low as possible.

We will make the tax system fairer by ending tax breaks for private schools, bringing in a proper windfall tax on the oil and gas giants, and giving that money to our NHS, schools and homegrown energy sector instead.

The Conservatives have failed on the economy and working people are worse off. Nothing Jeremy Hunt has said changes that.

It’s time for change. It’s time for a General Election.