TEESSIDE POLITICIANS GIVE THEIR VIEWS ON RACHEL REEVES' AUTUMN BUDGET

LOCAL politicians have delivered their initial verdicts on Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ Budget - with one Labour MP criticising his own government by saying it “falls short”.

- By GARETH LIGHTFOOT

Luke Myer MP

Labour MPs have welcomed measures in the Budget, including the end of the two-child benefit cap, described as a “massive step to tackle child poverty’; and changes to gambling duties, saying it offered hope for the future.

However the region’s remaining Conservative MP said Ms Reeves should resign following a Budget which he branded a “massive tax raid”, while Conservative Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen slammed “uncertainty and rising taxes”.

One local Labour MP was reserved and even critical in his response, saying the Budget made “small and positive steps in the right direction” but taxed workers too much and “ignored” fairer options.

Andy McDonald, who represents Middlesbrough and Thornaby East, said: “Today's Budget offers glimpses of the fairer country we could build.

“Ending the Conservative two-child limit will lift thousands of children in Middlesbrough, Thornaby East and across the Tees Valley out of hardship, and I welcome it as the most immediate, cost-effective step to cut child poverty.

“The rise in the minimum wage and protection of the state pension will also put money back into local economies after years of falling living standards.

“But this Budget still falls short of the transformation people deserve.