Shadow of Brexit looms ever larger

CLAIMING that austerity is “finally coming to an end”, as Chancellor Philip Hammond said in his Budget speech yesterday, is not the same as saying “austerity is over” which Theresa May promised in her conference speech last month.

The measures announced by Hammond will hardly ease, let alone erase, the effects of austerity. It will not put flesh on the bones of the May promise, or food on the plates of the poor.

The gap between Tory promises and reality is there for all to see right across the public sector in this apple crumble of a budget, which promised sweetness but fell apart before it reached the plate.

A sticking plaster on the unfit for purpose Universal Credit system, tax cuts that benefit the wealthy the most, and a boost for the NHS – none of that takes public services off the critical list.

The Tory record is frozen benefit rates and tax cuts for the rich, food bank use at the highest ever rate, 60 per cent of people who are in poverty are in work and homelessness that has more than doubled since 2010.

Although he only whispered it, contained in Philip Hammond’s speech was a hurricane warning.

The precarious economy could be knocked flat by a no-deal Brexit the likelihood of which is now forcing the Chancellor to stack billions away to counter.

The forthcoming Brexit calamity overshadows every part of the Budget.

There is no Brexit deal dividend, there is no better Brexit deal than the one we have now, and it is going to cost a fortune to prevent the storm washing any gains away.