Yesterday’s Budget saw millions paying more, so millionaires can pay less.

People on middle and low incomes are being squeezed. Fuel prices are rising, tax credits and child benefit have been cut, and one million young people are out of work.

What we needed was a plan for jobs and growth. Find out about Labour’s alternative at www.labour.org.uk/plan

In Islington, people know how much the Tories’ policies have hurt the local economy.

Long term unemployment for people aged 16 to 24 has nearly doubled over the last year alone. And across the borough there are now seven people chasing every job vacancy.

But the government gave a tax break to the richest 1% of earners – while hitting pensioners with a £3 billion raid.

Treasury figures show that those paying the top rate of tax will get a £10,000 cut – and the government will give £40,000 to the 14,000 people earning a million pounds or more.

Meanwhile a family with children earning just £20,000 loses £253 a year from this April. And that’s on top of a VAT rise which is costing families an average of £450 a year. 

Most worryingly, the government sneaked in a £10 billion cut to welfare spending by 2016. So while the Lib Dems may say they have raised personal tax allowances, they are punishing hard-pressed families by the back door.

There have to be tough decisions on tax, spending and pay. But we won’t get the deficit down unless we have a plan to get our economy moving again and to get people off the dole and into work.

A year ago the Chancellor said his Budget would ‘put fuel into the tank of the British economy’. But since then our economy has stalled, unemployment has risen month by month and the government is borrowing £150 billion more than they planned.

The government has cut too far and too fast – and this has hurt the economy.

In the Budget today, millionaires won while millions lost. It’s now clearer than ever that we are not all in this together and they really are the same old Tories.

Find out about Labour’s alternative at www.labour.org.uk/plan