George Osborne: UK is comeback country out of the red and into the black

British chancellor George Osborne declared during his budget speech that Britain was “the comeback country”.

“Out of the red and into the black — Britain is back paying its way in the world,” Mr Osborne told the House of Commons yesterday.

“This is a budget that takes Britain one more big step on the road from austerity to prosperity.”Mr Osborne told MPs:

“Today, I report on a Britain that is growing, creating jobs, and paying its way. We took difficult decisions in the teeth of opposition and it worked — Britain is walking tall again.

“Five years ago, millions of people could not find work. Today, I can report: more people have jobs in Britain than ever before.

“Five years ago, living standards were set back years by the Great Recession. Today, the latest projections show that living standards will be higher than when we came to office.

“Five years ago, the deficit was out of control. Today, as a share of national income it is down by more than a half.”

Mr Osborne added: “The critical choice facing the country now is this: Do we return to the chaos of the past? Or do we say to the British people, let’s go on working through the plan that is delivering for you?”

The budget programme was signed off by both Conservative and Liberal Democrat sides of the coalition government. But Lib Dems clearly signalled that the period of co-operation within government was coming to an end by announcing that, today, they will set out their own trajectory for future tax and spending — featuring a significantly higher reliance on tax rises than envisaged by the Tories.

Ed Miliband, the Labour leader, said: “This is a budget people won’t believe from a government that is not on their side — because of their record, because of their instinct, because of their plans for the future,”

Ukip leader Nigel Farage branded Mr Osborne’s statement the “long-grass economic plan”, saying: “This government has evidently failed in its promise to the British people to eradicate the deficit and whilst it took Labour 13 years to double the debt, this government has done it in five.”