Budget 2016: Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn attacks budget of failures

The left-winger also attacked George Osbornes record as chancellor in his response to the Budget.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has attacked the 2016 budget, claiming it is the culmination of six years of failure. UK chancellor George Osborne delivered his Budget to the House of Commons on 16 March.

The speech revealed that Osborne has missed his own targets for bringing down public debt, as well as lower forecasts for growth. He outlined a further Â£3.5bn worth of cuts to public spending, warning that storm clouds are gathering again.

Corbyn, addressing the Commons after the speech, said: The budget the chancellor has just delivered is actually the culmination of six years of his failures. His advised growth was revised down last year, this year, every year he has forecast. Business investment revised down, government investment revised down. He added: Six years ago he promised a balanced structural current budget by 2015. It is now 2016, there is still no balanced budget.

The Budget also included pledges on infrastructure across the UK, reforms to education, and new measures to tackle corporation tax. There was also the surprise announcement of a sugar levy, raising the tax on fizzy soft drinks.

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Osborne blamed the slowdown of the global economy and weak productivity for the lower growth forecasts. He said, Our economy is strong, but the storm clouds are gathering again. Our response to this challenge is clear, we act now so we dont pay later.

The Chancellor maintained that he would still turn the deficit into a surplus by 2019/20, despite this slowing of growth.