Ed Miliband didn’t produce a spectacular response to the Budget, but neither did he have a bad outing at the despatch box. It was certainly better than his performance last year, and Labour MPs seem – in public at least – quite cheered by the whole thing.
The Labour leader did have to contend with a wall of noise from heckling Tory MPs. The Treasury Support Group has got rather carried away with itself at the past couple of economic statements, producing a boorish roar that requires frequent interruptions from the Speaker rather than under-the-radar witty cricket sledging which works in unsettling the Opposition. You don’t want the public or indeed even the Speaker to notice what you’re doing, otherwise your attacks become part of the story. The heckling did make Miliband’s response go through a rather chaotic phase where he appeared to be jumbling his lines.
But the Labour leader also had some good lines, and you could see the bones of a very aggressive scary Labour campaign in the speech too. He started by saying:
‘Mr Deputy Speaker, never has the gap between the Chancellor’s rhetoric and the reality of people’s lives been greater than today. This is a Budget people won’t believe from a government that is not on their side. Because of their record, because of their instincts, because of their plans for the future and because of a Budget, most extraordinarily, that had no mention of investment in our National Health Service and our vital public services.
‘It’s a budget people won’t believe from a government they don’t trust.’
He also had some good lines on the Tories being ‘out-of-touch’, particularly the reference to Grant Shapps’ seminal publication, Stinking Rich 3.
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