Tory Lib Dem Budget picks on the poor

Local MP Sandra Osborne has blasted Tory MP David Mundell's comments last week that the Tory Lib Dem Budget was ‘fair to people on different incomes'

She said:

"We must have been listening to different Budgets. The one I heard George Osborne deliver was a budget that picks on the poor".

"This was not a budget for growth or jobs - it is a vicious assault on Scottish families and an attack on Scottish jobs. These are not just the wrong cuts at the wrong time - they are cruel cuts at a tough time for Scottish families. Cuts to tax credits, pregnancy grants taken from new mums, child benefit frozen for years, support for disabled people being cut, housing support slashed, attacks on the public sector - they are the same old Tories.

"Rises in VAT will hit the poorest people the hardest and force families to pay over £400 a year extra on household bills.

"Taken together, these measures will hit Scottish families harder than any budget in living memory.The sight of Tory and Lib Dem millionaires in the Cabinet making decisions they know will push Scottish families into poverty is shameful. The eleven Scottish Lib Dem MPs should hang their heads in shame at what they have done.

"The Scottish Lib Dems campaigned against these things in the election.

"Now the Lib Dems are supporting measures which will make people lose their jobs - just so they can keep theirs."

"The fairest way of halving the deficit is to create growth but this budget offers no satisfactory plan for growth in Scotland.

"This is a budget of risk and broken promises which takes support out of the economy at precisely the time it needs it."

"Unlike the Lib Dems I know what I campaigned on during the election and I know the mandate I got from the voters. I was elected to stand up for working people and fight the Tories at every turn. This is what I intend to do."