Nigel Farage has said John Healey’s first budget was designed to appeal to voters ahead of a general election by deferring big decisions on welfare and defence.
Speaking on GB News, he said: “It was John Healey’s first budget. Now, it wasn’t laugh a minute. It was delivered in a very deadpan style, but it was, I think, in many ways, politically pretty skillful.
“Nothing in there that’s going to cause people to howl with outrage, and little presents, little gifts being given everywhere. You’ll get some money off this, some money off that.
“Oh, there’s £3 million for this town. There’s 10 million for that town. There’s 15 million for that town. The fact they’re all Labour marginals, obviously completely irrelevant.
“No, it wasn’t because you see, for all this, look at me. I’m the nice guy. I’m giving you all these things. I’m going to give you 100 quid towards your energy bill early in the year, and the rest of it.
“Actually, in many many ways, it was a retail budget designed at holding a general election, or at least keeping the option open of having a general election by next spring, whether they choose to do so or not.
“[The] big, tough decisions kick down the road, especially on welfare and defence.
“So politically quite skilful. In reality, the tax burden is going up; it’s not coming down, and every single average working family will be worse off every single year from now till 2030.”
