Public sector ‘needs social care cash not social media’

SIR Keir Starmer accused Rishi Sunak of ‘papering over the cracks’ rather than rebuilding the economy, while ignoring public sector workers.

The Labour leader said the chancellor had failed to address problems caused by a ‘decade of neglect’.

There was no new cash for the NHS or struggling social care in the Budget, despite Mr Sunak offering ‘immense praise’ for the health service’s role in tackling the pandemic.

And Labour last night claimed that a £30.1billion funding cut for health and social care was ‘buried in the small print’, with funding down from £199.2billion this year to £169.1billion in 2021-2022.

Mocking the chancellor’s social media gimmicks, Sir Keir (pictured) told MPs in the Commons: ‘I’m sure the Budget will look better on Instagram – in fact, this week’s

PR video cost the taxpayer so much, I was half expecting to see a line in the OBR forecast for it. But even the chancellor’s film crew will struggle to put a positive spin on this.’

He accused Mr Sunak of ‘itching to get back to his free-market principles and to pull away support as quickly as he can’. Referring to the pandemic, he added: ‘One day these restrictions will end, one day we’ll all be able to take our masks off and so will the chancellor, and then you’ll see who he really is.’

TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady said the lack of new support or a pay rise for public sector key workers was ‘an insult’. Jon Skewes, of the Royal College of Midwives, said: ‘NHS staff have been on the front line fighting this pandemic and it’s about time the government acknowledges their commitment.’ Conservative former health secretary Jeremy Hunt questioned the lack of help for social care, which he said had been left ‘bruised and demoralised after the most devastating year in its history’. Age UK said ministers had spurned the opportunity to help small under-threat care companies. And Lib Dem education spokesperson Daisy Cooper asked why there was no new funding for schools and nurseries, or a promise to extend the free school meals scheme, calling it ‘a huge betrayal’.

IN CONTRAST to one of his predecessors Philip Hammond, who sprinkled speeches with dry jokes, there was little to brighten Rishi Sunak’s budget. Faced with a grim set of borrowing figures and bills, the chancellor avoided all quips during his 51-minute speech. Perhaps the lightest moment came when he channelled Alfred, Lord Tennyson and quoted from Ulysses saying ‘that which we are, we are’ – a poem quoted by Dame Judi Dench in Bond film Skyfall.