19 Mar Chancellor is ‘out of touch’ with the public, says MP Stephen Timms
THE Budget shows that Chancellor Jeremy Hunt is out of touch with the British public and is more concerned with helping the rich, according to Labour MP Stephen Timms.
Mr Timms, chair of the House of Commons Work & Pensions Committee, told GB News: “I welcomed what [Shadow Chancellor] Rachel Reeves said in response. I very much hope that it won’t be too long before she’s Chancellor of the Exchequer.
“It was a clear analysis of the problems that the country is in, the economic problems we are facing, the lack of investment, the lack of growth, and a commitment to a long term plan under a Labour government to address the problems.
“I think she’s right as well to pick on this tax giveaway for the richest 1% of pension savers, which was the one kind of really surprising element in the Budget.
In a discussion with Alastair Stewart, he said: “I’m kind of baffled really why that’s been done. And I understand there’s a problem with doctors, that’s been evident for a while, the government seemed to say, ‘well, to solve it quickly, all we could do was give out £1.2 billion in tax relief.
“They should have fixed this problem, looked at the problem some time ago, not suddenly tried now to come up with a solution.
“£1.2 billion at a time when more and more people are being dragged into higher rate tax. It’s wrong.”
He added: “It reflects the fact that the Chancellor of the Exchequer spends far too much time talking to people who are in that 1% group and kind of gets out of touch with what ordinary people are having to put up with at the moment.”
Asked about getting the sick and disabled back into work, he said: “They are very keen and I welcome a number of the ideas in the disability white paper that was published on Budget Day.
“The problem is that we just don’t have the details. We don’t really know what it is the Government is proposing, they’ve said they’re going to scrap the work capability assessment.
“I don’t think anyone is going to mourn the loss of that but what we don’t know is what they got to put in its place.
“I think there is a good deal more to be done before we’ve got a package which can do the job that’s needed, but there’s certainly some important potential there.”
