Balls: Tax changes will hit women and children the hardest
Shadow chancellor Ed Balls dubbed today ‘Black Wednesday’ for families in Britain:
“David Cameron promised to lead the most family-friendly government ever and George Osborne said we’re all in this together.”
“So why are their changes to tax and benefits coming into force today hitting women harder than men and taking so much support from children, with families on low and middle incomes being hit the hardest of all?
“We’ve been through a global financial crisis – not a recession made in Britain. And like every major economy in the world we now have a big challenge to get the deficit down. So there have to be tough decisions including some spending cuts and fair tax rises like the 50p top rate of tax for the richest and the national insurance rise we proposed last year.
“But as we have consistently argued, by making a political choice to cut the deficit further and faster than any other major country George Osborne is going too deep and too fast and putting jobs and growth at risk. And he is doing so in an unfair way, giving the banks a tax cut this year while low and middle income families are hit hard.”
