I’ve had a chance to read the Conservative Budget. I remember a time when the Tories would tell us that they’re making the hard decisions for the betterment of the country. I want to say this, not as a Chancellor, not as a MP, not as a Labour front bencher. Rather as a husband, son, and grandson- the increase in prescriptions brought about by the Conservatives isn’t austerity. It’s a sick tax. Funding roads on the backs of the middle class is shameful. It’s either heartless or brainless and I’m not sure which. Now I have a speech to write, and trust me, the Shadow Chancellor better come prepared

Re-opened until 23:59 on 30 April

This Conservative budget is proof of a party obsessed with lacklustre and brittle promises. The cuts continue without forethought and the Shadow Chancellor is more like a hairdresser with a chainsaw than any economist. It is clear that the Conservative Party is still as stuck in Osborninomics as ever without the ability to recognise its evident failures. Whilst this budget is a failure, the Labour party has put forward clear investment in Education, to cut class sizes, in Health, to improve Hospitals, and for pensioners. There is nothing here that shows the Conservatives can run the country, nor does it show compassion and common sense. Labour provides a commonsense Budget for a commonsense Britain, they provide a commonly dense piece of scribbled upon a dirtied napkin.

the Tory Budget at best diet version of our budget. They have adopted our positions and funding levels on varied issues yet failed to live up to promises. Tories offer nothing new, it is the same old uninspired, cowardly and frankly spineless blandness that they have offered and failed to convince the British public. No investment in our schools, no investment in our police force and actually cutting spending into our communities. 

Tories are protecting the rich while increasing your taxes. Tory fuel duty increase will cost every household in this country 71.8 pounds while not a single dime increased on the rich. Tories will cut spending into our communities by 63 million, they will cut investment into local culture and sports teams by 75 million. That is the Tory record, anything to protect the rich including making our people poorer with their tax increases. 

While Labour and the Liberal Democrats are busy trying to pin the Government's budget woes on one another, the Conservative Party has delivered an Alternative Budget that works for Britain. Our Alternative Budget ensures you keep more of your hard earned pay packet, invests in the NHS and our country's infrastructure, and cuts the deficit in order to protect the financial health of Britain's economy. The difference between our budget and the one presented by the Careless Coalition is simple: we're prepared to be honest about the decisions we're making and why we're making them, while the Government is not. When we increase rates, we explain why and tell you where that money is going to go. The Government, on the other hand, tells you what they want you to hear and hopes you don't actually read the budget to see if any of it's true.

Because when you do, the reality becomes clear. They promised to meaningfully reduce the deficit, and with the budget they're adding to it. They promised to invest in the NHS, yet they're not even hiring enough doctors and nurses to staff the hospitals they're building. They promised to be tough on crime, yet their budget will cause a reduction in prison capacity. The Government spends a lot of time talking about what they want to do, and then does the exact opposite when it comes time to actually get to work.

I'm proud to support our Alternative Budget for a lot of reasons, but I'm most proud of it because we're being straight with the British people about their country's economic future. Unfortunately the same can't be said for the Government. 

This Conservative Budget fixes every issue raised by the Government's shambolic budget and then some. Where the Government increase the deficit our budget reduces it by over 1% of GDP. Where the Government under delivers on hospital and front line healthcare provision our budget beats both offerings. Where the Government chases a cheap headline to score a few university seats our budget raises funding for Higher Education facilities in a sustainable way. And where the Government cut prison provision our budget protects our hard working prison staff. The Conservative Party and our long term economic plan are perfectly set up to deliver a fairer and more sustainable Britain where the Government have no plan, no vision, and would actively harm our national interest.

Tories are not hiring any new police. Their spending cuts made this country less safe and secure, we all see news about knife crime increasing every day and Tory response to is nothing, keep on, nothing to see here. I simply do not understand the rationale behind not hiring any new police officers while they are increasing fuel duty, asking every household to pay about 72 pounds more. Tories know their budget is as reckless as their approach to public safety and security, that is why they simply do not want to talk about it and deflect it with attacks against the government.

As the government we are hiring 20,000 new police officers, investing in our communities and offering our police officers a pay increase that they deserve. We believe this is the best solution for the problem on our hand. Whether Tories agree with it our solution or not, that is up to the Tories but if the Tories are opposed it, this begs the question, what is their solution to the knife crime, because more of the same clearly fails and keeps British public under danger.

Tories are saying they investing in our health services but they are not mentioning that they are also taxing the sick so that they can protect the rich. Instead of raising taxes on the rich and the bankers, Tories chose to tax sick people more. That is the Tory way of doing things. Tories are simply shameless and spineless. They promised not to raise taxes on the people, yet again it is a broken promise by the Tories. Tories are taxing the sick more,  taxing every single household in UK more just so that they won't increase taxes on the rich. 

Our government is increasing invest in NHS, we are freezing the fuel duty and we are freezing the prescription charge. How do we pay for it, simple we are asking the rich to pay a little bit more on their tax bill and going after tax dodgers and evaders. This is a genuinely slipshod budget and British public deserves better than Tories. Thankfully me and my government is offering that better alternative. 

The last time the Tories were in government we saw wages fall as prices rose, the rich get handouts as the poor got taxed and breadlines and public services be cut ruthlessly, relentlessly and without direction - the Tories' proposed alternate budget is a continuation of those devastating policies. Deborah Carpenter offers nothing but the status quo when most British people aren't just wanting change, but are depending on it. 

We need to know that our government is able to tackle not just the issues of the day, but the problems of tomorrow. This budget fails resoundingly on both by its utter failure to invest in or do anything for Britain's looming social care crisis. We know that as our population ages, we need to start getting serious on this issue and thinking about how we can structure social care and then how we fund it to look after our elderly and vulnerable.

This isn't even a case of words and not action - Carpenter didn't even mention social care once during her alternate budget speech. We can't trust a government which offers deathly silence on one of the biggest problems that stares in the face of every one of us. 

Healthcare isn't free. It costs Britain money to run the NHS, and we don't have limitless supplies. Conservative stewardship of the economy over the last 4 years is what allows us to invest in the NHS. You can only have effective public services with a tight rein on the public finances. By keeping public spending elsewhere under control, we are able to invest £10bn in the NHS and to keep prescription prices flat in real terms. Meanwhile, the Coalition's deficit spending is making your children pay for today's NHS. Every pound of debt we rack up today will have to be repaid with interest, and that interest is money that will have to be taken from public services somewhere at sometime.

Primary care, like GP services, is where the vast, vast majority of NHS patients are seen. The Coalition's First Budget forgot about this, the single most important part of the NHS, spending not a single penny more in real terms on treatment, and chose to leave it with only 60% of the doctors and nurses it needs to run effectively. In hospitals, where the most serious treatment takes place, the First Budget left the NHS short by thousands of staff. The truth is: the Conservative are investing more in Primary Care and more in hospital care than even the Coalition's newest Budget. This is the dividend of our long term economic plan, investment for front-line services.

The Alternative Budget succeeds in delivering the much-needed investment in our country's infrastructure and energy future where the Government's budget fails. Our Alternative Budget exceeds the Government's spending on the environment, despite all of the Coalition's talk on combatting climate change and protecting our natural resources. The Alternative Budget proposes a bold and innovative Rural Broadband Guarantee Fund, aimed at ensuring all parts of our country are connected to the broadband network. The Government's budget, on the other hand, ignores our rural communities all together. 

The Alternative Budget proves quite simply that the Conservative Party is committed to actually making good on the promises we made to the British people, whereas the Government simply isn't interested in doing the same. 

On the single most important economic issue facing our country, reigning in government spending and reducing the deficit, the contrast between the Conservative Party and the Government could not be more stark. Both parties promised to reduce the deficit during the last general election, and in their Coalition Agreement the Government promised to reduce the deficit through a "collaborative approach." The release of their budget has proven what we already knew: all of those commitments were nothing more than empty promises made by a Government with zero interest in and no plan for actually reducing the deficit. The difference between our budget and the Government's budget makes one thing very clear: when parties promise to reduce the deficit, only the Conservative Party is actually prepared to keep that promise. 

Under the Alternative Budget our nation's deficit would be eliminated by 2018, taxes for hardworking Britons and vital small businesses would be lower, and it would be more affordable to invest in the economy and take out a loan from your local bank. I'm incredible proud of the economic plan we've presented to the British people, because it's a plan built for growth and expanded opportunity. We're incentivizing investment by keeping Capital Gains Tax low, we're supporting small business and working class Britons by reducing the tax burden, and we're protecting the long-term health of our public services by reigning in spending and eliminating the deficit. Unlike the Government, our budget isn't a haphazard mess thrown together at the last minute in order to avoid another political embarrassment. Our budget, the Alternative Budget, is a thoughtful, comprehensive, serious plan for our country's future. 

Labour has made a point to talk about the Alternative Budget's impact on the NHS, so let's talk about it. Under our budget, investment in the NHS would increase by £3 billion, hundreds of millions of pounds will be invested to improve primary care, and hospital budgets will grow to ensure they have the resources and staff they need to provide quality care. The Government, on the other hand, plans to invest £400 million less in primary care, would invest less in hospital beds, and plans to build new hospitals without hiring the doctors and nurses needed to staff them. Once again, Labour has proven themselves to be the party of all talk and no action. Their attacks on our Health spending couldn't be farmer from the truth, and they serve only to highlight how much worse off the NHS will be under the Government's control.