'What is Conservative about hammering the working poor?' Tom Swarbrick asks Tory MP
17 November 2022, 19:37 | Updated: 17 November 2022, 19:53
Tom Swabrick confronts Tory MP Angela Richardson over budget
Tom Swarbrick asked for Conservative MP Angela Richardson to give her take on Chancellor Jeremy Hunt's Autumn Budget statement.
Tom Swarbrick spoke to Tory MP Angela Richardson after Chaneclllor Jeremy Hunt delivered the government's Autumn Budget statement.
Tom asked the MP: "What is conservative about hammering the working poor?"
Angela responded by saying she thought the statement was in fact "Conservative" and everything laid out has been clearly "pitch roled".
She added: "We just want to put in support where we need it for health and social care and for education which is really important.
"We wanted to make sure benefits are rising in line with inflation as well as pensioners on the state pension being protected as well."
British people will suffer the biggest drop in disposable income since the 1950s, when records began, according to an independent analysis of Jeremy Hunt's autumn statement on Thursday.
Hunt announces three priorities
British people's incomes will fall by 7.1% from 2021-22 to 2022-23 on average, which means incomes will be where they were in 2013, according to the Office for Budget Responsibility, which also said the UK was now in recession.
Angela said to Tom: "We talk about living standards and what's come out with the OBR today and people will be rightly concerned about that but the cost of energy has risen from 2 per cent of GDP to 8 per cent of GDP.
"As the Chancellor said it's costing the country the entire budget of the NHS."
Tom asked: "In that context, do you think a 7 per cent hit in people's living standards is bad?"
She replied: "I think it was inevitable, to be honest with you and I think we have to be honest about where we are as a country and also where the other G20 countries are as well."
On Tonight with Andrew Marr, economist Mohamed El-Erian said the budget was not typically Conservative and "Conservative ideology has been put aside for the economy".
Economist Mohamed El-Erian says Tory ideology has been set aside for this budget
