Thread by @LivEchonews

Rishi Sunak launches the budget in Parliament and promises a 'new age of optimism' #budget2022

"Employment is up, investment is growing, public services are improving, the public finances are stabilising and wages are rising" #budget2022

'Post-Covid' economy will be defined by "the sacrifices we are prepared to make” #budget2022

The chancellor is doubling down on the 'levelling up' rhetoric #budget2022

'Working hard' and 'being responsible' with public finances - that's what the chancellor says has characterised the government's handling of the economy #budget2022

Inflation is a 'global problem' and UK cannot solve it on our own #budget2022

"Our plan for jobs is working" #budget2022

Sunak say OBR expect recovery will be quicker than expected - possibly to 'pre-covid' levels #budget2022

John McDonnell MP: "Sunak starts his budget speech boasting his economic policies are working. Tell that to the families struggling to make ends meet after the £20 cut to Universal Credit & the nurses who will be hit by an effective pay cut as inflation rises"

Sunak says he is setting out new fiscal rules

First, underlying public sector net debt should be falling as a percentage of GDP

Second, the state should only borrow to invest. That means everyday spending must be paid through taxation #budget2022

Sunak says the Government will return to spending 0.7% of GDP on overseas foreign aid - when fiscal targets are met #budget2022

Debt forecast at 85.2% of GDP 2021

It will rise to 85.4% of GDP in 2023 before peaking at 85.7% in 2024 #budget2022

Pledge of £640m for homelessness #budget2022

Review of all numbers and what they mean will be published after the budget as we drill down into the detail #budget2022

Figures and forecasts announced by Sunak:

2021: 6.5% growth this year, up from 4.0% forecast in March

2022: 6% growth, down from 7.3% forecast in March

2023: 2.1% growth, up from 1.7% forecast in March

2024: 1.3% growth, down from 1.6% forecast in March

. @hmtreasury : "Up to 300,000 more families will benefit from an extra £200m investment in the Supporting Families programme"

. @stellacreasy "Chancellor just announced £174m for childcare over the next few years. There's £1.8BN in unspent childcare tax credits thats sitting in the Treasury coffers. Our kids are being shortchanged" #budget2022

New Beatles exhibition announced for Liverpool #budget2022

and tax relief for the Arts generally

.@hmtreasury "At least 100 local projects will benefit from £1.7bn of funding from the first round of the Levelling Up Fund" #budget2022

Sunak says museums and cultural attracting are getting £800m.

Tax relief for museums and galleries, that was due to end in March next year, will be extended for another two years #budget2022

.@LiamThorpECHO "Sunak announcing early years funding like its his new idea and this area hasn't been massively cut over the past decade" #budget2022

. @PippaCrerar "Rishi Sunak announces that per pupil funding will be back to 2010 levels by 2024-25. This was already planned - and comes 14 years too late for millions of pupils. Not sure it’s one to boast about"

Sunak says growth depends on tackling the country’s uneven economic geography.

There is a choice - retrench or invest, he says #budget2022

. @Bill_Esterson "It’s called Sure Start, Mr Sunak. Your government cut it by £1.2 billion. Putting a fraction of that into your plans in a few years time and calling it something different doesn’t change the facts of your disgraceful undermining of early years" #budget2022

.@lewis_goodall "Sunak says that he is returning school funding per pupil "to 2010 levels in real terms"

Curious this- Sunak basically heralding the fact the government is returning spending to the sums last reached before his party came to power..." #budget2022

Guardian: By revising down its estimate of the long-term scarring caused by the pandemic, from 3% to 2% of GDP, the OBR are signalling that Covid-19 will cause less permanent damage to the economy.

But, that’s still above the Bank of England’s recent estimate of 1% #budget2022

Rishi Sunak announces £2m for a new Beatles attraction on the Liverpool Waterfront

He says Liverpool-born culture secretary Nadine Dorries was key in securing the cash

@LiamThorpECHO "Some wondering if this is really what Liverpool really needs right now?" #budget2022

Sunak says a £1.4bn British investment fund is being set up to promote inward investment.

New scale-up visa will make it easier for firms to hire talented people from around the world #budget2022

New Statesman: "Sunak: £2bn more for schools and colleges, taking education recovery support to almost £5bn. Still nothing like the £15bn that government adviser Sir Kevan Collins reportedly said was needed, before he quit in protest at ministers' "half hearted" approach"

Sunak says the UK now has the freedom, ouside the EU, to deliver a simpler, fairer tax system #budget2022

Sunak attacks opposition's "reckless unfunded promise to abolish a tax that raises £25bn a year" #budget2022

Announces 'biggest business tax cut in modern British history' #budget2022

.@johnmcdonnellMP "So much for tackling climate change and fairness. Cutting air passenger duty on domestic flights undermines credibility before Cop26. So much for fairness, Sunak is cutting the levy on the Bankers who caused the economic crash in 2008"

. @DavidLammy "How on earth can Sunak claim that only the Tories can be trusted with taxpayer's money when they dished out £2bn to Tory donors and cronies during the pandemic??" #budget2022

Rishi Sunak has announced changes to air passenger duty

YouGov survey on tax fairness shows Britons are far more likely to see the duty as fair (net +19) compared to 2015 (net -22).

Overall, 40% see it as a fair tax compared to 21% an unfair tax #budget2022

Sunak saying he’ll introduce a new “draught relief” to make beer bought in pubs cheaper and will cut tax on pints from the pump #budget2022

Paul Waugh: "Sunak unveils what feels like 'Drink Out To Help Out' - slashes duty on beers, wines, ciders...claiming it as a Brexit bonus" #Budget2021

Rishi Sunak reaching the end point with a call for limited government - less tax, less spending is a message that will be familiar to the party's base #Budget2021

. @jessicaelgot "Sunak calls the taper rate "a hidden tax on work" which indeed it is. Cuts it to 55% - as low as Iain Duncan Smith had called for and more than had been expected #Budget2021

We'll be bringing you more #Budget2021 reaction later but here's a taster on the response to the feted new Beatles' Attraction
liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool…

Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves suggests the costs of public spending have been removed from big business and burdened onto the British worker

Suggests the picture Rishi Sunak paints of modern Britain will be unfamiliar to working people #budget2022

"Working people are being asked to pay more for less"

Reeves blames this on Government cuts and that this budget will make things work #budget2022

Reeves says that under the Tory decade we've had low growth and little to look forward to #budget2022

Also points to the better performance of other countries in dealing with the pandemic

Reeves says that as well as having the highest death toll in Europe we also had the worst performing economy #budget2022

Reeves says that the British economy forecasts will grow at a higher percentage but...

only because it was coming from much further back than anyone else

Reeves characterises Tory handling of the economy as: "Waste, cronyism and vanity projects" #budget2022