Living standards are expected to undergo the largest two-year decline since records began in 1956-57.

Jeremy Hunt’s budget was just like other Tory budgets, one focused on helping the wealthy few with little for ordinary, working people.

Amid a cost of living crisis, the Chancellor chose to give a tax giveaway to the richest 1%, while offering public sector workers nothing. For this was a budget with yet more austerity, with Hunt focused on balancing the books by 2026. He has promised the financial markets that he will have public debt falling as a share of national income within five years, meaning a further squeeze on public spending.

The budget also showed exactly which voters the Tories prioritise. Not only did the wealthiest in society receive tax cuts, the chancellor decided to hand cash over to motorists and big business. As for striking public sector workers, nothing.

The IFS’s Director Paul Johnson questioned whether Mr Hunt “recalls that the Government has spent months saying it can’t find any money to prevent nurses and teachers getting very big pay cuts.

“He just found £6 billion to cut fuel duties. That’s a choice.”

Living standards are expected to undergo the largest two-year decline since records began in 1956-57.

The Office for Budget Responsibility warned that the economy will stagnate and tweeted a graphic showing that the economy would shrink by 0.2 per cent this year – the worst forecast performance of any G7 country.

The below graph produced by the Resolution Foundation shows just how badly living standards have fallen under Tory rule. Typical household incomes are on track to remain lower in 2027-28 than they were before the pandemic.

A damning indictment on the record of this government.

Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward

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