EDITORIAL : THE SUN, UK

Vital fuel for our recovery

FOR a Budget that threatened to deliver little, it delivered a lot.

A welcome victory for The Sun's campaign to tackle fuel prices.

And another victory for our crusade to put jobs and growth at the heart of economic policy.

Chancellor George Osborne showed boldness and imagination in playing a poor hand very skilfully.

Crucially, he has thrown open Britain's door to the world as a competitive place to do business.

Mr Osborne showed he is on Sun readers' wavelength by cutting petrol duty and bringing in a stabiliser, giving modest tax cuts to 23 million workers and helping first-time home buyers.

But it is the aggressive approach to reducing business tax, together with lighter regulation and 21 new enterprise zones, that shows this Chancellor is serious about creating jobs to put Britain back on its feet.

It is obviously worrying that Mr Osborne has had to revise the growth forecast downwards.

But if he carries on slashing corporation tax, as he intends, we will have the lowest business taxes of any of our G7 competitors.

That is the way to bring foreign firms to Britain. And the new enterprise zones will aid regions hardest-hit by public sector job losses, just as The Sun wanted.

Labour drowned us in red tape. These bold measures should help to free us from those shackles.

Whatever Labour say, this was a Budget to help working families and the unemployed.

In just ten months, the Coalition has lifted 1.1 million low-paid people out of tax altogether.

There is not a penny in the Budget for the very rich. They get nothing from tax cuts, face severe penalties for tax dodging and will be hammered for using private jets.

Those facts made Labour leader Ed Miliband's "same old Tories" jibe sound weary and out of touch.

Let's not get carried away.

Rising prices and inflation, high unemployment and painful austerity were the Budget background.

Even with a cut, petrol is still 20p a litre dearer than six months ago.

But Mr Osborne proved yesterday he has the economic and political skills to mastermind recovery.

He brought a welcome ray of sunshine to a gloomy world.