Barbara has responded to the Chancellor’s Budget, criticising the measures it contains that will put people out of work, hold back economic growth and damage vital public services for people in Salford.

The Chancellor’s decision to raise VAT to 20% will hit the poor the hardest. Families on low and middle incomes in Salford will also lose out by having their tax credits taken away and child benefits frozen. The Budget will have a big impact on local jobs, with the new Office of Budget Responsibility forecasting that unemployment will rise by tens of thousands.

Responding to the Government’s Budget, Barbara said:

“There is much in the Chancellor George Osborne’s Budget to be worried about, and I am most concerned about the impact the cuts will have on people in Salford. The Government is risking the recovery by making cuts both too deep and too early. I am worried that my constituents in Worsley and Eccles South will have to pay the price of this decision.

“Young people and families are set to suffer the most, with child benefits frozen for three years, the scrapping of the Health in Pregnancy grant for new mothers and cuts to the Sure Start maternity grant and worst of all the increase in VAT to 20%. Before the Budget, the Government had scrapped the Child Trust Fund, ended free swimming for children and older people and cut the free school meals programme.

“The Government’s decision to scrap Labour’s Future Jobs Fund will axe hundreds of jobs for young people in Salford and they have also scrapped the Young Person’s Guarantee of a job or training place. There will be savage cuts to the funding in the public sector but while we do not have growth in the private sector this will just lead to unemployment for many.

“There was a choice today. The Government could have protected people from losing their jobs and gone for growth, as Labour would have done. This Tory Budget fails the fairness test and hits the poorest and most vulnerable people most.

“This is the same old Tories, but now they are being propped up by a Liberal Democrat party betraying their values and failing the people who voted for them at the last election.”