Yesterday was the Tories’ last chance to put the UK back on track, they chose more of the same

As the detail of the Budget continues to be analysed it’s increasingly clear that far from delivering Christmas, the Chancellor opted for Halloween.

While headlines initially focused on the changes to National Insurance and Child Benefit, overall the Budget has left households £870 worse off, with tax cuts giving back only half of people’s increasing tax burden.

The Office for Budget Responsibility has now confirmed that this will be the worst Parliament on record for living standads on the UK and the only Parliament in which living standards have actually fallen. In fact, during the whole 14 years of Conservative Government real wages have only increased by £17 per week, compared to an increase of £183 per week during the 13 years of the last Labour Government.

GDP per capita, the amount of money made by the UK economy per person, had already been falling since the start of 2022–the longest sustained period of stagnation since the 1950s, but yesterday revised GDP per capita projectsions down for the next four years. This means that the economy is in an even worse state than before Rishi Sunak became Prime Minister.

Far from taking the tough decisions, failing to understand basic economic principles means that public sector debt has almost tripled under the Conservatives and now stands at £2.6 trillion, with borrowing projections now revised up for the next five year forecast period.

In short, the Budget has confirmed that we have a broken economy, with the public sector at record debt levels, family living standards have taken the biggest hit of any Parliament on record, with more public sector cuts on the way. The Chancellor chose more of the same yesterday, another term of this and there will simply be nothing left for Labour to rescue.