Deputy Speaker loses it with Labour MPs jeering just minutes into Jeremy Hunt's Budget


Commons Deputy Speaker Eleanor Laing was forced to tell off boisterous Labour MPs just minutes into the Budget.

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt had been on his feet for around three minutes when Ms Laing made her first intervention following shouting and jeers from the opposition benches.

She said: “The Chancellor has hardly said anything yet. Order, order, you can’t get excited yet.

“Now other people want to hear what the Chancellor has to say and it matters so we’ll have a bit of good behaviour please.”

Ms Laing then had to make another intervention about two minutes later as disruption continued.

The Deputy Speaker said: “This is not amusing any more. We need to hear what the Chancellor has to say.

“I can tell who’s making the noise and you simply won’t get a chance to speak later so that’s the end of it.”

Mr Hunt kicked off his Budget at around 12.30pm following Prime Minister’s Questions.

The Chancellor said the Government was in a position to deliver “permanent tax cuts”, and billed his financial statement as a “Budget for long-term growth”.

He said: “Because of the progress we’ve made, because we are delivering the Prime Minister’s economic priorities, we can now help families not just with temporary cost-of-living support, but with permanent cuts in taxation.”

Mr Hunt said Conservatives know “lower tax means higher growth. And higher growth means more opportunity, more prosperity and more funding for our precious public services”.

He warned that growth could not come from “unlimited migration”, but from a high-skilled, high-wage economy, and claimed Labour’s plans for government would “destroy jobs with 70 new burdens on employers”.

Mr Hunt added: “Instead of going back to square one, the policies I announce today mean more investment, more jobs, better public services, and lower taxes in a Budget for long-term growth.”

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