Green Party reaction to Budget

Responding to the Budget, Treasury Spokesperson and leader of the Parliamentary Green Party Dr Ellie Chowns MP said:

You'd have thought that after going to the trouble of ousting the last PM, taking his job, and installing a brand-new Chancellor, Andy Burnham would be keen to ensure Labour displayed a bit more ambition at today's Budget than it did under his predecessor.

Unfortunately, what Britain actually saw today was a business-as-usual Budget which failed to engage with the real issues facing our country choosing to tinker round the edges, rather than properly taxing extreme wealth and profits, making essentials genuinely and permanently affordable, or investing in our long-term climate resilience.

There was no discussion of the climate crisis in Healey's speech today, nor any new investment in renewables and climate adaptation, despite the devastating impact of this summer's deadly heatwaves and wildfires on our communities, public services, and economy. Instead the Chancellor doubled down on fossil fuels, balancing the books on the assumption that climate-wrecking Rosebank oilfield will be approved.

And by refusing to tax extreme wealth and profits fairly in this Budget, the Chancellor has left billions off the table which could have been used to address spiralling inequality and provide genuine relief to struggling families: bringing down energy bills for good and scaling up warm homes funding, implementing an emergency rent brake, introducing free bus travel for young people, and bringing failing water companies into special administration before Christmas.