No apology for crashing the economy - Ian Murray

There were quite a few things missing from the Chancellor’s Budget, but the most striking was the lack of an apology. No apology for crashing the economy and adding thousands of pounds to people’s mortgages. No apology for maxing out the country’s credit card. No apology for all the broken promises. No apology for years of austerity and the Tories’ indifference to the cost-of-living crisis.

Chancellor Of The Exchequer Jeremy Hunt poses with members of the Treasury staff as he leaves 11 Downing Street to deliver the Budget

And they had the cheek to claim you’ve never had it so good. The only ideas Jeremy Hunt managed to produce were stolen from Labour. Policies he and the PM used to rail against.

It’s a sorry situation when the government of the day has to rely on the opposition to do the work because it’s so incapable of running the economy. Here’s another idea for the Tories: call the election now, so that we can end this circus, put a government in charge that knows what it’s doing, and deliver the change that people crave.

Because Hunt and Sunak are fooling nobody – people are all too aware of the damage and pain they have inflicted on households. Food prices still 25 per cent higher than they were two years ago, rents up 10 per cent, and a typical family has to pay an extra £240 a month if remortgaging. And taxes still at a 70-year high. So much for the Tories’ claim to be the party of lower taxation.

The only thing saving their utter humiliation is the fact that the SNP has messed up Scotland’s economy so much that it has resorted to putting up income tax as a substitute for economic growth.

And what a mess the nationalists are now in. They are raising taxes on nurses and teachers while opposing an extended windfall tax on the billions made in profit by the oil and gas giants. Even the Tories are now on board with the windfall tax extension (leaving Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross as red as a beetroot), completely isolating the SNP. Humza Yousaf must feel like a prize idiot after giving in to his Westminster leader Stephen Flynn.

This ongoing farce with two incompetent governments with no understanding of the economy needs to end. That starts with a UK General Election – and the Prime Minister should take the opportunity this month to set the date for May 2. Britain can’t afford to wait any longer.

We need a government ready to take tough decisions, give our stretched public services an immediate cash injection, deliver a sustainable plan for green growth, and improve the living standards of working people. That is the option on the ballot paper when that election comes.

As for the SNP, what is it putting on the ballot paper? The word "independence”. Yes, amid a cost-of-living crisis, with energy and food bills still sky high, education standards in freefall, and the NHS on its knees, the SNP thinks the focus at this election should be constitutional division.

Have the nationalists completely stopped listening to voters? How out of touch can you get? It’s not only UK politics that needs change – Scottish politics desperately needs it also. Scotland deserves better than the chaos of the Conservatives and the incompetence of the SNP. Scottish Labour is ready to deliver the change that our country needs.

Ian Murray MP is Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland