John Sabian

👏 Brilliant from Sophy Ridge as she told the Chancellor to his face: your budget does NOTHING. The Chancellor walked in expecting soft questions on @RidgeandFrost about “change”. What he got was a direct challenge over the gap between the big promises and the empty budget he just delivered. Sophy didn’t let him hide behind spin for a second: “When Andy Burnham came in he promised change, not just any change, big change! He promised to end 40 years of neo-liberalism. Don’t take this the wrong way, but that wasn’t a budget to end 40 years of neo-liberalism, right?” Chancellor: “I would say that is wrong.” He claimed he’d set out decisions that would change Britain’s energy system and market for good. Sophy: “Like what?” Chancellor: “Like an end to levies on household bills.” She cut him off: “Come on! You’ve been talking about nationalisation of our utilities and ending 40 years of Thatcherism.” Chancellor: “He’s talking about bringing energy bills down and in line with Europe.” Sophy wasn’t having it: “You’re talking about levies on bills, this is a different order of magnitude.” Then the line that finished him: “Give me one thing in this budget that Rachel Reeves wouldn’t have done as chancellor?” He had nothing. This is a big nothing burger. Starmer 2.0. No fundamental change. Absolutely nothing in there for the working men and women who get up and graft all day for nothing. Nothing to incentivise work. Nothing to reward effort over dependency. Is it any wonder people are happy to sit on their backsides and get paid by the state? This government shows no sign at all of addressing that. They promised to end 40 years of the status quo. They delivered more of it.