Labour sticks to cost-of-living attack as Budget debate rumbles on

If Ed Balls thought he could have done a better job than Ed Miliband at responding to the Budget, today he got his chance. The debate on the measures announced by George Osborne rumbles on in the House of Commons, and Ed Balls gave his speech on it this afternoon. He started by telling the Chamber that this was ‘the Chancellor’s last chance to make decisions and announce measures that will make a real difference before the general election’. Balls claimed that ‘for all [Osborne’s] boasts and complacency, the Budget did nothing to address the central reality that will define his time in office – the fact that for most people in our country, living standards are not rising but are falling year on year’. He quickly moved on to that poster/infographic/mistake, and produced a printout of it, which he waved jubilantly at Osborne, saying:

‘How patronising, embarrassing and out of touch that is.