Sharon Hodgson, MP for Washington and Sunderland West, today strongly criticised the Tory-Lib Dem Budget which George Osborne delivered in the Commons.

“Raising VAT to 20%, slashing housing benefit, reducing who can claim child tax credits, abolishing maternity benefit and child trust funds and freezing child benefit are going to make thousands of hard-working families in my constituency worse off. This is a Budget which will have a big impact on those who can least afford it in Washington and Sunderland West.

“Although Osborne talked tough on the banks, the effect of the new levy will be lessened by other tax changes. We are not ‘all in this together’ as Cameron and Osborne like to tell us – it’s one rule for the rich another for the less well off. The best way to secure the recovery is growth, and even the Government’s new Office of Budget Responsibility says that today’s announcements will adversely affect growth and jobs.

“The fact that VAT is being put up, even when David Cameron and Nick Clegg said during the election that their parties wouldn’t, shows how little the new Coalition can be trusted. Their talk of fairness is completely hollow, and the Lib Dems especially should be ashamed that after specifically campaigning against a VAT rise, they are now complicit in it. As Harriet Harman said, this is ‘a budget of broken promises’ Labour has found itself once again to be the only party which makes fairness its top priority.”

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Sharon Hodgson MP
House of Commons,
London SW1A 0AA

E-mail: hodgsons@parliament.uk

Constituency Office Tel. 0191 417 2000.

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