Business secretary Sajid Javid defends “regressive” Budget on Marr
Business secretary Sajid Javid has defended criticism of the government's Budget as regressive, following an analysis by the Institue of Fiscal Studies, concluding it was "not the Budget of a tax reforming chancellor".
"As in every Budget, there will be some losers and some winners," said Javid, responding to questioning on the BBC's Andrew Marr Show.
"This is not a regressive Budget. It's a Budget when taken together, it will ensure the richest make the biggest contribution… and that we continue to have a growing economy that creates jobs from which everyone will benefit," he said.
This is a Budget, like the others since 2010, we've made sure it's the richest in society that make the biggest contributions, One of the numbers published in this Budget, for example, the richest one per cent are going to pay 27 per cent of total income tax. I think that's fairness. So it is a fair, well-balanced Budget which ensures that the economic recovery continues and that's what working people want to see.
Crunching the numbers after the Budget, the IFS claims 13m families will be £260 worse off each year due to the changes in tax and benefits, three million of whom will lose on average £1,000 every year because of tax credit changes.
There were other things announced in the Budget such as the personal income tax allowance, a further tax cut for working people, which actually taken together with the allowance from 2010, means £900 more for the typical working family. So if you take someone who's working today, full-time, on the national minimum wage, and you take into account all the changes we announced in this Budget they will be better off by 2020.
He also said that the introduction of the living wage would come with a £4bn price tag for businesses. "By 2020 it will probably cost businesses around that amount," said Javid.
Watch the interview below.