Jeremy Corbyn says budget has ‘unfairness at its very core’

Jeremy Corbyn has accused George Osborne of delivering a budget with “unfairness at its very core” with corporations benefiting from “mates’ rates” in a series of tax deals.
In one of his strongest performances at the dispatch box, the Labour leader saidthe budget marked the culmination of six years of failure as he reeled off a series of targets the chancellor has missed.
“The budget the chancellor has just delivered is actually the culmination of six years of his failures,” he said as the deputy speaker, Lindsay Hoyle, intervened to discourage Tory MPs from heckling him.
Corbyn went on: “It’s a recovery built on sand on a budget of failure. He’s failed on the budget deficit, failed on debt, failed on investment, failed on productivity, failed on trade deficit, failed on the welfare cap, failed to tackle inequality in this country.”
Many Labour MPs, some of whom have been highly critical of Corbyn, expected him to falter as he delivered his first response to a budget as leader of the opposition. But Wes Streeting, the Labour MP for Ilford North, praised Corbyn’s performance and joked that he must have eaten his Weetabix.
The Labour leader stuck to a largely pre-prepared script as he sought to deliver two core messages – Osborne has failed to meet his own targets as chancellor and has presided over growing unfairness.
On the first theme, Corbyn said: “Today he’s announced growth is revised down last year, this year, every year he’s forecast. Business investment revised down, government investment revised down. It’s a very good thing that the chancellor is blaming the last government – he was the chancellor in the last government.”

On the theme of unfairness, he said: “This budget has unfairness at its very core, paid for by those who can least afford it. He could not have made his priorities clearer – while half a million people with disabilities are losing over £1bn in personal independence payments, corporation tax is being cut and billions handed out in tax cuts to the very wealthy.”
Corbyn focused on Osborne’s overall record, rather than examining specific details of the budget, as he lambasted the chancellor’s achievements during the past six years at the Treasury. The Labour leader pointed to what he described as a gulf between what the Tories expect from the wealthiest and from ordinary taxpayers, as he highlighted what have been labelled sweetheart tax deals.
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He said: “The mates’ rates deals for big corporations on tax deals is something they will be forever remembered for. This is a chancellor who has produced a budget for hedge fund managers more than for small businesses.”
Corbyn made a point of mocking some of the chancellor’s grand rhetoric of recent years. “Five years ago – and it was great words – he promised a Britain carried aloft by the march of the makers. Soaring rhetoric. Despite the resilience, ingenuity and hard work of manufacturers, the manufacturing sector is now smaller than it was eight years ago.
“Last year he told the Conservative conference ‘we are the builders’. But ever since then the construction industry has been stagnating. This is the record of a Conservative chancellor who has failed to balance the books, failed to balance out the pain, failed to rebalance our economy.”
Corbyn did welcome one measure – Osborne’s announcement of a sugar levy: “[The chancellor] spoke at some length on the issue of ill health amongst young children and the way in which sugar is consumed at such grotesque levels within our society. I agree with him about that. I welcome what he said.”