Unions brand budget a ‘con trick’

Unions were quick to attack the Budget, describing it as a “beautifully crafted con trick”.

Paul Kenny, leader of the GMB, said: “On the one hand he offers a vision of a living wage which is welcome. He confirms what GMB has being saying for some time – the vast majority of employers can afford pay rises and no amount of howling from the CBI will alter that fact.

“On the other hand he is taking away money from working families without any guarantee that they will be better off.

“George Osborne is big in attacking working families and young workers but he has yet to take action on the billions of public money flowing out of the country into tax havens because of the abuse of housing benefits income by private landlords.”

The Public and Commercial Services union said the Budget “rewards the wealthy and punishes the poor.”

PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said: “Cutting social security support from the unemployed, the low paid, and sick and disabled people must rank among the lowest and most despicable acts of any government in recent times.

“Osborne hypocritically talks about cutting tax credits to increase wages while the last government cut living standards for civil servants by up to 20% and he now plans four more years of pay caps.

“From delays at the Passport Office to the scramble to plug gaps on HMRC phone lines, Tory cuts have hit public services we all rely on, and led to the deeply unpopular privatisation plan at the National Gallery.

“More politically-motivated cuts on this scale would devastate services and leave them vulnerable to companies looking to run them for private profit rather than public good.”