An abridged version of this stub will appear in the Voice:
The black community will need to brace itself for the harsh years ahead. This budget is an assault on the poorest families and has all the hallmarks of the Thatcher budgets of the 1980s. Increased VAT, Maternity pay cut, Child Tax Benefit frozen, reduced Housing benefit - these are measures that hit the vulnerable the hardest.
It is a fact that the rich pay only £1 out of every £25 on VAT, where as the poorest pay £1 out of every £7 – this government has chosen to make the poor foot the bill for the bankers’ mistakes.
The London Lib Dem MPs should be ashamed of themselves - how can Lynne Featherstone (Hornsey and Wood Green), Simon Hughes (Bermondsey and Old Southwark) and Sarah Teather (Brent Central), all representing the biggest BME communities in London, look their constituents in the eye and claim they represent their interests? They have put ambition above principle and their own jobs above those of the people they represent.
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