£150 COST OF LIVING LIFELINE

Reeves takes aim at rocketing energy bills and finally moves to end hated two-child cap

- BY PAUL HUTCHEON

SCOTS will receive a £150 cut to their energy bills after Rachel Reeves delivered a cost-of-living lifeline in her Budget.

The Chancellor also announced an end to the two-child benefit cap - a move that will take 20,000 kids out of poverty in Scotland and benefit almost 100,000 children in total. She called time on the old Tory curb after a "personal campaign" behind the scenes by Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar.

Reeves' second Budget included a series of tax rises in order to plug a huge funding black hole.

A tax raid on pension contributions and a freeze of income tax thresholds were among the big revenue generators.

But she also used the cash raised to boost the living standards of lower and middle-income earners whose family budgets have been squeezed.

Labour promised during the general election that they would cut energy costs by £300 - but bills have still risen.

Reeves said she would scrap "failed" green schemes to cut bills, telling MPs at Westminster: "For every family we are keeping our promise to get energy bills down and cut the cost of living with £150 cut from the average household energy bill from April.

"Money off bills and in the pockets of working people. That is my choice.

"Not to leave working families to bear the brunt of high prices, like the Tories did.

"But to get energy costs down now and in the years to come. That is the Labour choice."