FORMER Chancellor George Osborne said measures outlined in the Budget are not going to alter the country's or the Conservative government's fortunes.
The editor of the London Evening Standard, who raised eyebrows when he said he would not rest until Theresa May was "chopped up in bags in my freezer" raised more with a Budget day cartoon showing a triumphant Theresa May brandishing the severed head of her chancellor.
Mr Osborne said in an opinion piece before tweeting out a brutal cartoon: "With each Budget a Chancellor can nudge the country in a particular direction, making it a little more competitive, fairer and greener.
"Philip Hammond did that with research tax breaks, money for homelessness and work on a plastic package tax. They are all welcome but they aren’t going to change the economic course of the country — or the political fortunes of this government."
Back when Mr Osborne was himself Chancellor.
Mr Osborne, once the second most powerful politician in the UK, said the Budget could never be the "political game-changer" that Conservative MPs yearn for because "the rules of the game were set" when the Prime Minister called an election and lost her majority.
"As a result, the votes aren’t there in Parliament for big acts of social and economic reform. Witness the nascent Tory rebellion over any new building in the green belt, which undermines the impact of today’s stamp duty cut for most first-time buyers," he said.
Sketch: How Fun-time Phil sugared the pill in a taxing budget
Osbourne, who also tweeted a caricature of Mr Hammond as a miserable Mr Brightside for the paper's front page.said: "On most occasions, the drama of Budget day, with the central conceit of one individual standing in Downing Street with a national master plan, doesn’t match the reality. That was the case today."
The ex-politician who was criticised for promoting a cartoon depicting Labour candidate Diane Abbott refusing to attend an anti-terror meeting as Home Secretary because she’s 'far too ill' said Mr Hammond's main task was to read out the"grim downgrade" to the economic forecasts provided by the independent Office for Budget Responsibility.
After his Budget day cartoon showed a triumphant Theresa May brandishing the severed head of her chancellor he wrote: "For the first time in Britain’s modern history, GDP growth is expected to be below two per cent for every single year of the forecast horizon. Importantly, this major downgrade is not the result of global economic forces — the forecasts for most European Union economies are being upgraded.
"It is all but unique to Britain. That is the overriding fact - and the central story - of this Budget. And there was nothing the Chancellor could do to change it."
He said one of the reasons was that the major economic decisions that will shape Britain’s economic future have already been taken by the Government "and against the advice of Mr Hammond".
He said: "The May Government has decided not just to leave the EU (as the referendum dictated) but to leave the single market and customs union too (which it did not).
"Although Parliament has yet to confirm this decision, and may not, it is already damaging private investment and the world’s view of the UK’s prospects. The devaluation of the pound is a reflection of that and it is squeezing real incomes.
"With borrowing also higher, the Chancellor correctly judges that he doesn’t have the fiscal resources to do much about it — which is why the increases to income tax thresholds and the details of Universal Credit announced today were not significant."
Our first of several Budget day editions @EveningStandard: Philip Hammond is Mr Brightside, promising “the future is bright”, as Tory MPs rally to defend him + money to help homelessness in London and councils keep rate money & the story behind Hamilton play + Ashes latest pic.twitter.com/CSz9undmVq
— George Osborne (@George_Osborne) November 22, 2017
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