As always with this Government the devil is in the detail, as on previous form we know that they give with one hand and take away with another.  It is breathtaking to hear the Chancellor start off by saying this is a budget for working families and then launch into a raid on tax credits hitting the thousands of working people In Newport East who rely on them to top up their wages.  A family with one earner on average earnings will lose over £2,000 in tax credits from the changes announced today.

• Cuts to tax credits will hit working people on middle and lower incomes. Over three million working families will be worse off as a result of the changes. A family with one earner on average earnings and two children will lose over £2,000 in tax credits next year from the changes announced today.

•  The Government has not announced a Living Wage because they are cutting working families tax credits. The new rate when it’s introduced will be lower than the Living Wage this year. Furthermore families on low incomes will see almost half the benefit of a higher NMW taken away from them by the Chancellor’s new work penalties in the tax credits system. George Osborne is trying to pull the wool over people’s eyes. Middle and low income families need support, not spin.

• This Budget fails the productivity test. The Tory record on productivity is one of failure and today’s Budget offers just more of the same. After all the Chancellor’s boasts, the OBR has revised down productivity next year, the year after, the year after that and the year after that.

• The Chancellor today ducked the big decisions on infrastructure. A modern economy needs modern infrastructure but this Government have pulled the plug on electrification of the railways, pulled the rug from investment in renewable energy and have flunked the decision on airports.

• Had Labour been delivering today’s Budget we would have focussed on delivering for working people while cutting spending outside protected departments and taking steps to tackle the root causes of welfare spending. That means:

• Putting working people first: With tax cuts focussed on low and middle incomes, not cutting the tax credits working people rely on.

• Supporting firms to become more productive: Delivery of infrastructure, not re-announcements of future projects, and high quality training and apprenticeships, not a rebadging of existing qualifications.

• Increasing productivity and delivering higher wages to bring down the cost of welfare: Tackling the root causes of welfare spending -; low pay and high housing costs -; to bring down government spending in a sustainable way, not making working people worse off overall before they are benefiting from higher pay.