2008 Budget Report: the political reaction

12 Mar 2008

'The cost of living is going up and Labour is making it worse,' Conservative leader David Cameron has argued.

Speaking in the wake of Alistair Darling's debut Budget statement, Cameron criticised the Chancellor's 'failure to recognise' the soaring cost of everyday living.

Cameron said Darling had had 'the most disastrous start of any Chancellor in modern history' but conceded that his predecessor Gordon Brown should bear much of the blame.

'The Chancellor was put in a hole by the Prime Minister and they both kept digging,' he said.

Cameron's thoughts were echoed by the Liberal Democrat leader, Nick Clegg, who accused Darling of performing an 'act of political ventriloquism'.

Clegg claimed that Darling was using environmental taxes - such as those the proposed changes to vehicle exercise duty to target the highest polluters - to take more from ‘the kitty of the lowest earners'.

'This was an opportunity to give whatever help possible to the millions of hard-pressed families who are feeling the pinch, whose money is simply not stretching as far as it once did,' he told the Commons.

Describing the Darling's statement as a 'green cop out', the Tory leader added: 'This is a meagre, tinkering Budget which gives precious little help to the poor but maintains special treatment to the rich - a Budget designed to fill a black hole masquerading as good for the environment. A Budget which will not make Britain fairer.'