Keir Starmer blasts Budget as Tories' 'last desperate act' ahead of election
Keir Starmer has blasted Jeremy Hunt's Budget as the "last desperate act" of a dying government.
In his response to the Chancellor's Spring Budget 2024, he referred to Rishi Sunak and Mr Hunt as the "Chuckle Brothers of decline" as he accused the Tories of only getting out of bed "to save their own skin". He challenged Mr Hunt for making out that "everything was on track", imitating him: "Crisis, what crisis?"
The Labour said the country was stuck in a "vicious downward spiral" of chaos and decline, and furiously told the PM: "It's time to break the habit of 14 years. Stop the dithering, stop the delay, stop the uncertainty and confirm May 2 as the date of the next election."
He told the Commons: "The Chancellor, who breezes into this chamber in a recession and tells the working people of this country that everything's on track. Crisis? What crisis? Or as the captain of the Titanic and the former Prime Minister herself might have said, iceberg? What iceberg? Smiling as the ship goes down, the Chuckle Brothers of decline, dreaming of Santa Monica or maybe just a quiet life in Surrey not having to self-fund his election."
Mr Starmer called the Spring Budget "just another short-term cynical political gimmick" and asked what was "the point" of the Conservative Party: "What is the point of a party that is out of touch, out of ideas, and nearly our of road?" He said they "give with one hand and take even more with the other" and "nothing they do between not and the election will change that".
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He also launched a fierce attack on the Tories for scrapping the non-dom tax loophole for super-rich UK residents only after "years of resistance" and support for the policy. Labour first called for the measure to be scrapped in 2015. "The complacency they've shown today - it takes your breath away. Britain deserves better than that," Mr Starmer blasted.
Keir Starmer referred to Rishi Sunak and Jeremy Hunt as the 'chuckle brothers of decline'In one jibe, Mr Starmer questioned whether the Government "had been taking lessons on marketing" from Glasgow's disastrous Willy Wonka experience, which has gone viral, over its struggling childcare plans. "The cost of childcare is a huge challenge to millions. Parents need him to deliver on his promise," he said.
On the morning of the Budget announcement, Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury Darren Jones said the Budget was the "22nd fiscal event" since the Tories came to power in 2010 as he criticised them for driving the economy into "Rishi's recession".
He said the Conservative Party were "not only blowing up the doors on the house" but "burning it down on the way out" to make it as difficult as possible if Labour wins the election this year.
He told Sky News: "There are two big questions for people at home. The first - is the tax burden going up or down? And the second is, will people be better off? Let's see what the Chancellor sets out today. But I suspect the answers to both those questions will be the wrong ones.
"This will be the 22nd fiscal event from the Conservatives since they came into office in 2010. Every single time they've said they're going to get the economy growing and where are we right now? We're in the middle of Rishi's recession."
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