- "You do not get borrowing down by pulling the plug on support for businesses," says Harriet Harman, trying to wrest the mantle of 'friend of business' from the party which has a traditional affinity with the private sector
- Vince Cable is getting slated. "From a national treasure to a Treasury poodle," she says describing his transformation in recent weeks. Never seen Harman so animated
- Harman fires back, deriding the VAT rise as disproportionately unfair on the low paid
- Comparison with Greece is spurious, she says, as their GDP is so much smaller
- Harriet Harman begins her response...
- Introducing a bank levy which will generate £2bn a year. To be introduced from January 2011 unilaterally, rather than waiting for a global consensus
- Osborne refers to his government as a "progressive alliance", prompting snorts of derision from Labour. A Labour Chancellor uttering those words with a nodding Nick Clegg behind him still seems surreal. Great theatre from this 'new politics'
- VAT rise to 20% - no surprise given it was forecast by government advisers weeks ago. Widely considered to a comparatively pain-free way of raising revenue, though retailers won't see it that way, and it's a tax from which low-income disproportionately suffer
- Capital gains tax only increased to 28% rather than 40% feared. A much watered-down proposal
- No rise in booze and tobacco duty? I'm stunned. Labour's punitive cider tax hike is being abolished too. Great news for pubs though. Seemed like easy pickings given the binge-drinking media outcry, and the fact it always attracted above inflation hikes during the boom years! However, there will be a review later in the year, so the Dog and Duck and King's Head should keep the champagne on ice...
- It's all kicking off, as Osborne reminds the rambunctious Labour benches that the painful measures are unavoidable
- Wants to erect an "open for business" sign over the UK economy. Current rate of corporation tax, 28p, "looking less and less attractive". Aiming for an immediate 1p reduction, and another 3p to 24p, over the next four years.
- Raising threshold at which companies start paying national insurance by £21 a week. That will go down well with the many SMEs who said NICs rise as their most feared tax rise. No employers NICs for first 10 employees for new businesses outside London
- Small companies tax rate will be cut to 20%.
- Some back-dated business rate bills will be cancelled
- Video games industry tax relief is to be axed
- £11bn saved from welfare cuts by 2014
- Two-year pay freeze for public sector workers. The message in a nutshell: private sector workers suffered, through pay freezes and cuts, throughout the recession, now it's your turn... High paid in the public sector also warned that the days of largesse towards them are over
- Capital spending to be preserved. Criticises John Major's government for slashing spending on infrastructure and other capital spending during the early 1990s. Great news for business, in particular the construction sector
- State accounting for half of national income is "unsustainable", says Osborne.
- Promised to balance books by 2015. THis goes further than what he promised during the election campaign, suggesting tax rises and spending cuts could be even tougher as expected.
- "It pays for the past and plans for the future," he says.
- "Interest rates have fallen" as a result of the coalition government's declaration of intent." already supporting our recovery," he says. Elsewhere in the EU, they've risen, he adds.
- "The unavoidable budget," he calls it, in an implicit rebuke to those criticising the severity of the cuts
