Budget does nothing for the poor again

Malcolm Naylor, Cowpasture Road, Ilkley.

The Conservative budget has done what it always does. Reduce tax for the rich and increase it for the poor. There are loopholes everywhere to enable the rich to fiddle the system including the nondom tax con which they can easily avoid.

This budget totally ignores the plight of pensioners and those on low incomes. The personal allowance (tax threshold) remains unchanged so pensioners who saved to pay for occupational pensions on which they paid tax are now taxed more than ever before.

Hunt delivered his budget with a smirk on his face showing his utter contempt for the most disadvantaged people in this country.

This budget is an utter disgrace and fully exposes the Conservatives for what they really are. Capitalist Establishment exploiters. the Government knew it because the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy were confidently advising the Government that the steel industry would be moving away from using coal. And they were right because it’s what the steel industry was telling them.

Tata Steel recently announced that its coal-based blast furnaces at Port Talbot are no longer profitable and the Government is even using our money to support the transition to electric arc furnaces.

Why didn’t Michael Gove give us the full picture back in 2022? Why was the BEIS advice hidden from us?

The game is well and truly up. We need to kick the self-serving Tories out before they totally wreck the economy with policies based on politics not practicalities.