Former Chancellor Jeremy Hunt criticised the government's Budget, saying it forces ordinary families to bear the burden of tax increases. He argued that these measures will lead to lower wages, higher mortgages, and reduced living standards. Report by Covellm. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
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00:00This is not a debate about getting more funding for the NHS and public services.
00:04They need more money. We found more money when we were in power. We fully recognise that.
00:09The choice is whether you find that extra money through tax rises that are incredibly
00:16damaging to the economy, or whether you're prepared to take difficult decisions on welfare reform,
00:20public sector productivity, and find the money a different way.
00:25The result of what the government has done today in these very damaging tax rises for
00:30ordinary families, it's going to mean lower wages, higher mortgages, higher prices,
00:36living standards going down. That's according to their own economic watchdog, the OBR.
00:41And that just goes to show that when the Labour government puts up taxes however they dress it up,
00:47it's ordinary families that pay the price.
00:49Well, if we got our welfare rolls down to 2019 levels, just before the pandemic,
00:55we would save £34 billion a year. Now, those are difficult decisions.
01:00And what's happened is the government's ducked those decisions. They've taken the easy path,
01:04which is to pick the pockets of businesses. But what their own watchdog, the OBR,
01:10says is that actually means lower living standards for ordinary families, lower wages,
01:15higher prices, higher mortgages. In other words, however much they try and mask it as not affecting
01:21working people, when Labour raise taxes, it's working people that pay the price.