Budget day Liveblog – March 23rd

By Mark Ferguson / @markfergusonuk

(We’ll be updating this page throughout the day. Press F5 to refresh the page and see any new updates)

18.00: John Denham has just been on Radio 4’s PM where he argued that the country would be in a better fiscal position if Labour were still in charge.

“From a year ago we would have said that it was reckless to try and cut public spending as fast as George Osborne was trying to do, we warned that if you did that you’d see growth slowed and you’d see unemployment go up and that’s exactly what has happened.”

“So, I think we’re entitled to say, yes, we wouldn’t have been reducing public spending as fast as George Osborne and therefore we would be in a stronger position today, that’s not to say we wouldn’t be dealing with the deficit, we would be, but we would be doing it by getting growth in the economy.”

“What we’ve seen from the figures today is that George Osborne’s measures since he came in have put 43bn of extra borrowing onto the coming years, we’ll be paying £12bn more in the cost of unemployment benefit, it’s exactly what we warned, if you cut too fast, you put unemployment down, you slow growth, you make it harder to pay off the deficit.”

17.40: The video of Ken’s cat nap is now online…

16.43: No video evidence yet on Ken Clarke’s budget nap, but Chris Bryant and Douglas Alexander have both confirmed that Clarke was asleep, and the Telegraph have this photo where the justice secretary look…sleepy, to say the least.

16.22: We were surprised (to say the least) when Osborne decided to being back the “greenest government ever” line. It just doesn’t ring true, and George Monbiot agrees. He’s called it:

“the blackest budget in living memory, from the team that claims to be the greenest government ever”

16.12: Andy Burnham asks an important question in an interview with BBC News – where’s the EMA replacement?

“Let’s look at the Education Maintenance Allowance. The pre-briefing coming into this Budget was that they were going to announce something to give hope to young people. They haven’t done that today. And that for me really is the story of this Budget.”

15.44: Guardian Economics editor Larry Turner has analysed the budget. You can watch his analysis here.

15.27: Ed Balls has attacked Tory claims that they’re cutting the cost of fuel, saying:

“The idea that drivers around the country should be grateful for a 1p cut in fuel duty when George Osborne’s VAT rise is adding 3p to the price of petrol is laughable. When people fill up their cars this weekend, they should remember £1.35 of the cost is because of the Tory VAT rise.”

“When we were in government we regularly axed planned duty rises when the world oil price was rising and we would have done the same now. That’s why the percentage tax take on petrol actually fell between 1997 and 2010.”

14.43: Speaking to BBC News, Yvette Cooper labels the fuel duty cut “a con”, because of the rise in VAT:

“I think it’s a bit of a con because it’s a one penny cut in fuel duty at the same time as VAT has put three pence extra and they’ve not reversed the VAT on fuel, which is what we called for. And it’s also not clear from these proposals that if the fuel prices go up any higher there will be any additional relief for motorists.”

14.28: Shadow chief secretary to the Treasury Angela Eagle, speaking to Sky News, says that:

“All we’ve seen is growth downgraded, unemployment forecasts up and actually borrowing forecasts up as well and that’s because his plan isn’t working.”

14.23: Alistair Darling has responded to today’s budget on Radio 4, saying:

“What’s happening now is precisely what I thought would happen, that the risk is if you take all this money out of the economy you de-rail the recovery.”

“All the things he has announced, whether cutting corporation tax and all the rest of it, I’m sure once you look at the small print one or two of these things won’t be as good as they look. But all of these things will be de-railed if you don’t actually get growth and what the figures today confirm is we are not getting growth.”

14.15: And we’re back. Well… what a budget that was. Thanks to everyone who took part in the budget livechat. Don;t forget to check out our budget verdict. We’ll be bringing you all of the Labour responses to the budget throughout the day, so stick with us.

12.31: PMQs comes to an end for this week. Now for the main event. We’ll soon be switching over to our joint livechat with Left Foot Forward, Political Scrapbook and others. The liveblog will return with our verdict on the budget, and all of the Labour reaction.

12.29: Cameron is now suggesting that Tory reforms will save lives. It’d be interesting to see the research to back that up.

12.25: Two crucial questions. Does former Osborne bag carrier Matt Hancock get to answer a question every week? And does he ever ask a question that isn’t the stock Tory line?

12.23: Every Tory MP seems to be either trying to get a concession from the PM, or flag up something in the budget a few minutes early.

12.21: Rail is also going to be a focus of today’s budget. How many more hints will Cameron drop? Will there be anything at all that’s a surprise in the budget.

12.16: Cameron confirms that “growth” will be the focus of the budget today. I remain to be convinced. There are also hints that council spending/council tax might be a part of the budget.

12.14: Wow. A Tory MP compares Gaddafi to Ed Balls. This low key PMQs has gone up a gear, and it’s nasty. Both sides are itching for a fight.

12.11: It’s mobility allowance removal that Ed Miliband goes with. David Cameron says that they’re not removing it. The temperature is rising. Miliband is hammering away at the idea that the PM doesn’t know what is in his own legislation.

12.10: What will Ed Miliband go with for his second set of questions? Will he go more punch and judy, on the NHS? Or perhaps the economy? Surely he’d be better off saving his best attack lines for later?

12.08: Some low-grade theatrics from the Tory backbenches today. The two leaders are playing nice (ish) today, so the attacks will come from elsewhere.

12.05: As I predicted earlier, there’s a foreign policy focus to Ed Miliband’s questions today, which keeps the tone measured ahead of the budget.

12.04: A barb there from Lib Dem MP Jo Swinson, who asks if events in Japan will have an impact on Britain’s nuclear power plans. That’s a coded threat to the Tories if I ever heard one.

12.01: PMQs begins, and the atmosphere seems subdued.

11.59: The budget speech is set to last an hour – then we’ll have Ed Miliband’s response…

11.56: Some protesters are trying to bloackade Downing Street to stop the chancellor leaving. That won’t work, not least because there are (if I remember correctly) tunnels that connect DOwning Street and the commons…

PMQs preview: It feels a little odd to preview PMQs today when there’s so much else going on. It’s a difficult one for Ed Miliband, as it’s his first (and least important) opportunity to hold the government to account today. PMQs will get little if any mention in the news bulletins tonight, so Miliband may want to play things safe, avoid making any mistakes and save his best lines for the chancellor. By contrast, the PM has nothing to lose. If he gives Miliband a kicking then his MPs will be in high spirits ahead of the budget, and if he loses today’s contest, no-one will notice.

Miliband may want to stick to foreign policy statesmanlike questions today to avoid any potential traps. Labour MPs are likely to focus on economic questions, and try to trip the PM up before the budget.

11.32am: Meanwhile over at Progress, Hazel Blears (who has been critical of Labour’s response to government cuts) has outlined what the budget will need to do for area’s like the North West.

11.30am: There’s an excellent blog over at Left Foot Forward which pre-empts Osborne’s presumed attack on “red tape”. Quite rightly, it points out that cutting red tape isn’t a growth plan…

11am: Morning everyone, and welcome to our budget day liveblog. We’ll be covering all of the news and reaction from the budget today – as well as PMQs – as the chancellor presents the latest installment of his austerity drive to the country. But will there be surprises? And do his numbers add up? Stay tuned for all of the news throughout the day. We’ll also be joining a number of other blogs for a livechat during Osborne’s budget speech from 12.30, so don’t forget to join in and have your say.