Rachel Reeves quotes The Independent during Budget clash with Jeremy Hunt

Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves attacked Jeremy Hunt’s announcements, stating Britain is worse off now than when the Conservatives won power in 2010.

Ms Reeves highlighted The Independent’s disclosure that Richard Huntington, strategy chief of Saatchi and Saatchi, the advertising firm that helped Margaret Thatcher become Prime Minister, had attacked the “cruel” Conservatives and forecast a Labour election victory.

Ms Reeves said: “The ravens are leaving the Tower when even Saatchi and Saatchi are saying the Tories are not working.”

Her comment was a reference to Saatchi and Saatchi’s famous 1979 election poster attacking unemployment under the then Labour Government which featured a picture of a long dole queue with the slogan ‘Labour Isn’t Working.’