This week, the UK’s market leading tax analysts the IFS, defined David Cameron’s ‘Emergency Budget’ as ‘regressive’.
In a complete contradiction of Chancellor George Osborne’s claim that the Emergency Budget represented ‘progressive economics’ , the Institute for Fiscal Studies claimed that the budget actually targeted lower income families, by cutting welfare and child benefits.
Shadow chancellor Alistair Darling was keen to support the IFS findings, claiming that the ‘Emergency Budget’ was merely an ‘Old-fashioned Tory budget with a liberal spin.’ Darling’s comment comments will undoubtedly harm the Liberal Democrats, who have been keen to appear as though they are staying true to their ideological liberalism since the coalition was announced.
Last night the government claimed that they were sticking by their ‘Emergency Budget’ while Mr. Clegg commented that he refused to take advice from the previous administration who consistently failed to achieve their objective of reducing child poverty.
When the budget was first announced, there was widespread criticism from the SME sector who felt it failed to address the barriers to company formation or current lending situation which are the real challenges facing enterprise in the UK.