Speaking during Tuesday night’s debate in the House of Commons, Ms Lockhart said: “The Labour Party is attempting to sell the budget as something positive, but the reality is very different. This budget is deeply damaging to pensioners, employees, employers and the wider economy. This is a government who, it appears, is making up reasons to take back double or treble.

“While the rise in pension is welcome, it is not a new policy. The protection for pensioners’ ISA savings is welcome, but it penalises those who have not yet reached pension age and limits their ability to save. Where do hard-pressed workers get the benefit to invest their money? At the same time, saving into pension schemes has become yet another tax grab.

“We have been consistently told of a £20 billion black hole. For weeks we have been fed the line that it has ballooned into a £50 billion crisis in just one year, but now we hear that there is no black hole at all. The OBR has been keeping both the Prime Minister and the Chancellor updated on a bi-weekly basis in respect of their forecasts,” added the MP.

“This Budget penalises those who work. For years in opposition, Labour made promises to the nation that they would lead, but the reality has been very different, with broken promises and broken manifesto pledges. Now they are slowly breaking our country’s workers, who cannot give any more.”

Carla Lockhart MP continued: “The increase in the minimum wage is positive in principle, but it will mean little in practice when employers are hit with the double blow of the national insurance rise and higher wage costs. Retailers and other businesses will inevitably raise prices to cover these additional burdens, and perhaps have to make redundancies, wiping out the benefit for many workers.

“The poorest will become poorer while workers are asked to pay more to support people who come here from overseas and go straight on to benefits, with little incentive to work. The system means it is more lucrative not to work than actually to contribute. It is time that this government put British citizens, workers and employers first.

“It is time to get tough on tax avoidance and offer genuine support to the hard-pressed workers who are doing the right thing and paying their way.”

The DUP’s Westminster Agriculture spokesperson added: “Perhaps the most appalling tax grab is the attack on our family farms. The announcement making business property relief and agricultural property relief transferable is a meaningless gesture. The family farm death tax remains fully intact - farmers gain nothing.

“The government seem intent on taxing family farms beyond profitability. It is a tax on death and a tax on tragedy. What can be more immoral? Farming is the backbone of our nation. Food security is national security. Undermine it, and food prices will rise and we will rely on lower-quality imports at higher cost.

“Furthermore, the Budget does nothing to remove the trade barrier separating Northern Ireland from the rest of the United Kingdom. The £16.6 million package does not change the reality that businesses still face checks, paperwork, delays and extra costs when trading with Great Britain.

“If the government remove the checks, they will save the £16.6 million immediately. We look with some envy at the Department of Government Efficiency in the United States, and wonder why the UK cannot match that level of waste reduction. There are quick, real-time savings available such as to cut excess immigration spending, make work genuinely rewarding, ensure everyone pays the tax they owe, pulp the costly madness of net zero and tackle waste across government.



This Budget offers presentation rather than substance. It fails workers, employers, farmers, policing, health, hospitality and our taxpayers. There is a clear solution: get tough on immigration, tough on crime and tough on tax evasion, and get our country back to being the envy of the world. That is where we belong!