Nigel Farage's views on George Osborne's budget

Budget does little for business or families

Wednesday, 21st March 2012

Today's Budget from Chancellor George Osborne does little for business and continues to pile on the financial pain for families, says UKIP Leader Nigel Farage.
Mr Farage said: "In his Budget the Chancellor promised the 'biggest reduction in business red tape ever', but this is mere tinkering at the edges.
"For the government to effectively help small business it needs to tackle legislation such as the Agency Workers Directive which is predicted to cost the economy 100,000 jobs and the Working Time Directive which has cost the NHS alone £2billion over the last 2 years.
"The government is impotent when tackling the real barriers to growth because of the UK's insistence on adhering to these damaging EU laws. If the government really wanted to support UK business it would repudiate such EU legislation.

"The Chancellor's refusal to cut the proposed 3p per litre increase in fuel duty for August is a kick in the guts for hardworking families across the country. Refusing to budge on this demonstrates that he and his government do not understand the challenges facing real people in this country. Cutting this duty would have boosted growth, instead he continues to clobber the hard pressed motorist on top of the road tolls he plans to introduce.

"Increasing the personal income tax threshold to £9,025 is a step in the right direction but does not go nearly far enough. To boost growth anyone on the minimum wage who works a full week should be taken totally out of the tax system, which would mean a threshold of £12k pa. This would take four and half million people out of tax. UKIP have been calling for this for five years.

"The Chancellor's revealed that the UK economy will grow this year by 0.8%, whilst the eurozone contracts. This goes to show that we should cut our ties to this sinking ship."