PC 12: Shadow Budget(s)

[Blakesley]

The fact that there will be two of them makes me sad. I don't even have a question. Just spin against each other here.

[Rebecca Flair]

I am delighted to have presented the Lib Dem vision for our public finances, a vision built in low taxes and pro-services to deliver a balanced approach to our budget that works for everyone. Under the Liberal Democrats the average family will be £800 better off just from the reduction in Income Taxes, abolishing the lowest rate altogether and equalising the Income Tax and National Insurance thresholds to deliver a tax cut for everyone from Surrey to Sutherland and from Essex to East Antrim. The Liberal Democrats believe that everyone should have the right to enjoy their income, so we have proposed just that, allowing everyone to keep more of their income and raise their standard of living whilst also investing in the public services that we are all so reliant on.

[Rebecca Flair]

Under Lib Dem plans our justice system would be revolutionised. We would hire four thousand police officers a year, increasing the total number of police officers by 20,000 over the course of a five year parliament, with the specific intention of putting bobbies back on the beat in our communities. We would also provide a short-term solution to the problem of prison overcrowding by constructing 5,000 prison spaces and then reinforcing that with a long-term solution of doubling the rehabilitation fund. Our society deserves security without sacrificing freedom, stopping the revolving door approach to justice, putting bobbies back on the beat, and ensuring that we have the time and space to properly help as well as punish our criminals will ensure that long term crime numbers drop and stay down.

[Rebecca Flair]

As I have been saying to the Government repeatedly a surplus that one does not spend is pointless, it needn't exist, so when I see the Government posting an even larger current surplus than last year it is clear to me that they have had insufficient vision when it comes to investing in our public services. The Liberal Democrats will not abolish the surplus, we will carefully manage it so that we retain fiscal headroom for emergencies, but crucially we will not be so pre-occupied about our surplus that we forget to invest in our public services or cut taxes for our citizens. A budget surplus is a means to an end, that end being better services and lower taxes, it is not an end in and of itself, a fact the Liberal Democrats understand even if Labour does not.

[Rebecca Flair]

Our pensioners deserve the best when it comes to retirement, they deserve to have certainty that their pensions will be upheld and their living standards will be increased every year, they deserve to know that the appalling pensioner poverty figures of the last Conservative Government will never again be repeated. That is why the Liberal Democrats have unveiled a new policy for our pensioners, the pension triple lock. Each year under a hypothetical Liberal Government the state pension would increase by the highest of earnings, inflation, or 2% ensuring that pensioner living standards continue to climb at least at the same pace as the standards of the young and ensuring that pension poverty for those who gave us their best years remains well and truly in the Tory Party's past.

[Sir Jack Anderson]

Before every significant public appearance the Prime Minister makes, I ensure she is provided with a full briefing – that she knows the state of the British economy, the government’s policy objectives and the results. I know the Prime Minister memorises that briefing until she can recite it backwards.

I think if the Shadow Chancellor spent less time forcing his own religious views on the British public constantly, the Leader of the Opposition would be similarly briefed and would be able to respond to basic questions. I’m perfectly honest about what my objectives are, the benefits and the sacrifices that must be made. I would encourage the same honesty and sense of responsibility from the Conservative Party.

[Sir Jack Anderson]

After wrongly claiming Labour didn't raise the state pension above inflation, William Croft has decided to simply say Labour hasn't raised it enough and put forward a bigger sum without any proposal for how that sum is funded. We saw the same kind of behaviour with the Liberal Democrats and Working Tax Credit. This sort of behaviour is good politics, but it doesn't make for good economics. There's no serious strategy to deal with investment into social security or public services - just a weak attempt at a numbers game, whatever the financial consequences may be.

The government has no intention to play that numbers game: while the Tories and the Liberal Democrats vow to use our surplus to fund giveaways, we will invest sensibly in pensions and in public services, but we will do so in a fiscally responsible way that allows us to continue making these crucial investments year on year.

[Amelia Lockhart]

When running for Leader of the Conservative Party, William Croft made being “the party of environmental conservation and responsible stewardship of our planet” one of his five key priorities. As part of his campaign, he promised to support moves to “invest substantially more in clean sources of power, like nuclear energy”. Yet in the first Shadow Budget under Mr Croft, the chance for him to prove his green credentials, investment in nuclear energy research, renewable energy, and energy efficiency has been frozen in real terms. In comparison, the Government is more than doubling investment in nuclear energy research, increasing investment in clean sources of power by £400 million, and providing energy efficiency schemes around £70 million. While the Labour Government delivers new investment in innovation and green jobs of the future, the Leader of the Opposition abandons his promises and makes it clear to the British public that you can’t trust him.

[Will Frost]

The Conservative Party's Shadow Budget is truly the epitome of our Right Way Forward approach, providing a stark and dramatic contrast between a Labour Government intent on taxing you more and holding onto your hard earned money. The Shadow Chancellor's budget shows what can be achieved when the British people have the leadership they deserve, and what can be accomplished by a Conservative Government implementing the Right Way Forward approach. This is the right way to put power and opportunity back into the hands of the British people by providing record setting tax cuts. This is the right way forward for businesses and entrepreneurs who will succeed under a lower tax burden. It is the right forward for students, who know with certainty that their future is more secure with tuition fees becoming a thing of the past. And it is the right way forward for our public services, which not only are getting the funding they need, but will benefit from the unprecedented wealth creation we'll see in this country as a result of Conservative economic management.

The Shadow Chancellor has released a strong, compelling, bold budget that will get Britain moving in the right direction. I look forward to talking to people across the country about how a Conservative Government will do so much more to ensure they and their families are better off.

[CWard]

The Shadow budget is just a return to the same old cycle of boom and bust of the Thatcherite era. Now the Leader of the Opposition has raved that his party left the economy in womderful hands; conveniently forgetting the recession, unemployment, and waste. He leaves off that school infrastructure was crumbling. His Narnia like version of the time before Labour is what drives this shadow budget. It’s a return to hope and prayer trickle down economics that we know don’t work. He teased this great budget that we would see. Sadly what he’s presented is just reheated over nonsense