THE TUC
GENERAL SECRETARY
“We needed a Budget that looked to the future and made jobs – particularly for young people – the national priority. Instead we have got a Budget for the rich by the rich. One minute the chancellor said he found tax avoidance morally repugnant, the next he rewarded it by cutting income tax for the richest by one per cent – with precious little relief for hard-pressed families on ordinary incomes. Treasury figures show that those on low and middle incomes will do worse than those higher up the income scale. This looks like a Budget made to keep the coalition together rather than one made for the good of the country. The chancellor’s decision to raise more than a billion extra pounds in tax from pensioners by freezing age-allowances will come back to haunt him.”