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Living Standards

We do think that Government should be doing more in the energy market to help to bring down prices. The right hon. Gentleman will, I know, feel strongly about that, because of the 6,500 families in his constituency who are now seeing cuts in tax credits. When wages are falling and prices are rising, people would expect the Government to do more to help—but what we now have is a budget set out yesterday that tightens the squeeze on working families. Last Friday the Deputy Prime Minister blustered his way through an interview on the radio and said, once again:"““We will not balance the books…on the backs of the poorest””." That is an old line, and today it rings pretty hollow, because that is exactly what the Government are doing. Yesterday, the Government rejected any new tax on bankers' bonuses. Instead, it is children, women and working parents who are picking up the tab for the Government's failure to get people back to work.