“The people of Chesterfield will be disappointed that today’s budget fails to grasp the scale of the issues facing hard-pressed families”, says Toby Perkins, MP for Chesterfield, who has accused the Government of missing the opportunity to unlock Britain’s promise and potential.

Toby Perkins said, “The Chancellor’s Budget is just more managed decline by this Government. After 13 years, they are still out of ideas and have no plan for growth or productivity and are relying on sticking plaster politics to hide their failures. The Budget won’t help small businesses and does nothing to improve living standards. 

The biggest change – an increase to free childcare will not be fully operational until September 2025, meaning that almost no children currently born will benefit. Toby said : “A child born in September 2022 will not be eligible for the full childcare package until September 2025, by which time they would have been eligible for the free childcare for 3 year olds anyway. This is a promise to children who aren’t born yet, to be paid for and delivered by the next government.”

Meanwhile the government’s only permanent tax change for people was a huge reduction in taxes for people with £1Million pension pots, a £1 Billion spending commitment to the richest 1% of earners- a tiny minority of the British people.

“This was a chance for the government to unlock Britain’s promise and potential. We need a General Election now – we can’t sit back and watch these incompetents allow the UK to fall further behind other countries.”

There was also real anger from Labour MPs, Unions and public sector workers as the Government failed to make any announcement on public sector pay despite the widespread industrial action causing disruptions to schools, hospitals and other services.