“The British economy is today growing faster than all the other G7 economies…” What they are saying: (a taster)

Don't take our word for it...

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We congratualte the government on making this budget a quitters' budget
Deborah Arnott, of Ash

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And yet, the chancellor has done something that produced huge roars on the Labour benches and awkward gasps on the Tory benches. A headline cut in income tax (which the Tories have long dreamed of making) and a headline cut in business taxation.
Nick Robinson, BBC Political Editor

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People who have lost their retirement savings when their company pension scheme went bust received a welcome boost.

The chancellor pledged that the amount of money being made available to the Financial Assistance Scheme - which pays money to people who have lost their pensions - would quadruple from £2bn to £8bn.
BBC

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Helen Goodman MP, a former head of strategy at the Children's Society, said tax and benefit changes would help meet the government's goal of eradicating child poverty by 2020. "If we can lift 200,000 children out of poverty every year, we can hit that target," she said.
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Labour backbenchers were jubilant yesterday after watching Gordon Brown wrongfoot the Conservatives with his 2p cut in the basic rate of income tax.

MPs reported a buoyant mood in the tearooms, ascribed in part to relief that the chancellor had produced a budget startling enough to knock Lord Turnbull's recent criticisms of his leadership style and the party's faltering poll ratings off the agenda.

"The polls have been depressing, but this is just what the doctor ordered," said one backbencher. Labour MPs were confident the package was a winning one.

Tania Branigan, Guardian political correspondent

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