2023 Spring Budget - the political reaction

15 Mar 2023

Addressing the House of Commons, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt used the 2023 Spring Budget to announce an abolition of the pensions lifetime allowance; an extension to the fuel duty freeze; and an expansion of free childcare for working parents to cover children from the age of nine months.

During his Budget speech, Mr Hunt said: 'We build for the future with inflation down, debt falling and growth up. The declinists are wrong, and the optimists are right. We stick to the plan because the plan is working.'

However, Sir Keir Starmer, Leader of the Labour Party, likened the Chancellor's Budget measures to being in a doctor's waiting room. He commented: 'After 13 years of his government, our economy needed major surgery but like millions across our country, this Budget leaves us stuck in the waiting room with only a sticking plaster to hand.

'A country set on a path of managed decline, falling behind our competitors, the sick man of Europe once again.'

Meanwhile, the Liberal Democrats stated that 'all the government could offer is empty words'. It said: 'Jeremy Hunt and Rishi Sunak had a chance to show they care about the cost-of-living crisis that's hitting millions of Britain's families and pensioners, but they failed miserably. People are desperate for real help, but all the Chancellor could offer is empty words.'