Today’s budget is a wasted opportunity and a sticking plaster over the real problems that we face in our country.

Changes to child care and the retention of the energy price cap are welcome but they don’t go far enough. Energy bills are still twice what they were last year, childcare provisions won’t be fully active for three years, and the biggest tax give away goes to the wealthiest 1%. There is no mention of how to increase funding in our NHS and schools, or of any further investments in our public services.

At the end of it, the economy will still be smaller at the end of the year than it was at the beginning of the year. Slow growth, high inflation, and low wages – that’s the Tory record, and for people and businesses in Reading and Woodley, they’ll be looking at today and asking “was that it?”.

#Budget2023