The three men that put Britain back into recession, laugh and joke.

'Don't blame me... blame Gordon': Osborne attacks Labour 'snipers' as he warns everyone will pay for his 'bloodbath' Budget

Osborne insists economy cuts are 'tough but fair'

FTSE down 40 points to 5207 on opening

Two-year pay freeze for public sector workers earning over £21,000

Child benefit frozen for three years and tax credits cut

Corporation tax cut from 28% to 24% over four years

Capital Gains Tax hiked to 28% for top-rate taxpayers

Income tax threshold raised £1,000 to £7,495

Pension link to earnings restored or 2.5% rise from next April

Whistlestop tour: George Osborne did a series of interviews today to defend his emergency budget

George Osborne today revealed the agonising decisions behind his 'bloodbath' emergency Budget as he faced a backlash from ordinary families stung by his tax hikes.

The Chancellor insisted that he had been forced to raise VAT and freeze child benefit because of the 'massive mess' the country's finances had been left in by Labour.

Millions of middle-class families will bear the brunt of his emergency Budget, losing tax credits, facing a three-year child benefit freeze and paying £500 a year more in VAT.

But Mr Osborne today defended his decision to slash £11 billion from the annual welfare budget and said he had been left with no choice but to take 'tough but fair' decisions.

'It is not because I want to do these things, it is because this country faces a very, very serious debt problem,' he told GMTV.

And Mr Osborne said it would be better if Labour could come up with something constructive instead of 'sniping from the sidelines'.

'The damage to the economy, the people losing their jobs, will come if we do not sort out our problems in this country, and the welfare bills have got out of control,' he said.

'The hole in the public finances was so great and the debts were so large, and people at home know, if you have got a debt problem, you have got to deal with it.'

The Chancellor was forced to listen as he was played angry messages by GMTV viewers, worried by the decision to freeze child benefit.

The budget announced

Read about the budget, The Big Cut

U.K. Panel Faces Big Test Next Week

By LAURENCE NORMAN sourced from Wall Street Journal


LONDON — When the U.K.'s brand-new fiscal council, the Office for Budget Responsibility, laid out its fiscal and economic forecasts a week ago Monday, it was widely praised for its careful, comprehensive work.

Yet the same office will face a bigger test Tuesday when Treasury chief George Osborne delivers his emergency budget statement and the OBR revises its forecasts in light of those plans.

That will force the OBR to give its judgment on the central question in U.K. politics for the last year, including the recent election campaign: whether stepped-up deficit reduction will lift the jobless rate and derail a still-fragile economic recovery.

The OBR was set up by Mr. Osborne last month to add credibility to government fiscal plans. The independent fiscal council was given the power to make the key growth and borrowing forecasts that underpin the budget plans, a power previously exercised by the Chancellor of the Exchequer.

In its debut act on Monday, the OBR lowered the growth forecasts the previous government had given in its March budget. The OBR surprised some by cutting borrowing forecasts for coming years but raised the estimate of the closely watched structural budget gap—the estimate for the size of the deficit once the economy returns to a rate of growth in line with its long-term trend.

Budget 2010: Britain on 'road to ruin' without cuts

Britain is "on the road to ruin" unless action is taken in the Budget on Tuesday to cut the deficit, Chancellor George Osborne has told the BBC.

Mr Osborne said the coalition had inherited "a truly awful financial situation" and he would set out a four-year plan to deal with it.

Tough action was "unavoidable" but he aimed to provide "prosperity for all".

He also announced ex-Labour minister John Hutton would head a commission into public sector pensions.

Mr Osborne told the BBC's Andrew Marr Show that Mr Hutton's involvement would mean the commission into future pensions would be independent and have cross-party input.

Osborne 'to give Bank of England top regulatory role'

Chancellor George Osborne is expected to announce later that the Bank of England will be given the key role in regulating the UK financial sector.

In his first Mansion House speech, he is tipped to return this power to the Bank at the expense of the Financial Services Authority (FSA).


Before the election, Mr Osborne had suggested he would abolish the FSA.

However he is expected to say that the FSA will continue to have the role of supervising individual banks.

The FSA has come in for criticism for not doing enough to prevent or limit the crisis in the financial markets.

Sourced from The BBC

Osborne to consult public about spending choices

Ministers are to give details about a "once-in-a-generation" re-examination of the way the government works, as it prepares to make "painful" cuts.


The Treasury is to ask for the public's views on which functions the government should perform and which could be done by other bodies to save money.

A "star chamber" of senior figures will be created, before which ministers will have to justify their spending.

The PM has warned of unavoidable cuts ahead as he tackles the budget deficit.

David Cameron said on Monday the country must prepare itself for painful and unavoidable cuts which will affect "our whole way of life".

The Conservative-Lib Dem coalition government has already outlined plans for £6.2bn of cuts this financial year and is preparing for an emergency Budget on 22 June and a departmental spending review in the autumn.

Labour says the government is wrong to focus on cuts not growth.

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