Harriet Harman: Tories have broken election pledge

Harriet Harman today accused the Tories of breaking a pre-election promise not to increase VAT.

The acting Labour leader tore into Chancellor George Osborne, stressing that the Conservatives had said before the election that they had no plans to increase the tax.

She also condemned the Liberal Democrats for supporting the move to raise the VAT rate to 20 per cent after they themselves had accused the Tories during the election campaign of planning a "secret VAT bombshell".

Ms Harman dismissed the Budget as "reckless" claiming it would lead to more tax increases and job losses.

Rounding on Mr Osborne, she said: "It's his first Budget but it's the same old Tories.

"This reckless budget's short-sighted approach will jeopardise the recovery and make the deficit worse. And when you do that, you end up with more tax rises further down the track."

She branded the Lib-Dems "fig leaves" for backing an "unfair" Budget.

"Surely they can't vote for this?" she said.

"The Liberal Democrat leaders have sacrificed everything they ever stood for to ride in ministerial cars and on the coat-tails of the Tories."

Ms Harman, MP for Camberwell and Peckham, warned that it is not just the public sector, where hundreds of thousands of jobs could go, that will bear the brunt of the coalition's cuts.

"Private sector jobs will not spontaneously emerge as we see fewer people employed in public services," she said.

Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown was not in the Commons, remaining in his Kirkcaldy constituency.