Newspaper headlines: Hunt 'defies gloom' and 'Giveaway for the 1%'

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By BBC News
Staff
PA Media

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt delivered his first Budget on Wednesday

Reaction to Jeremy Hunt's first Budget as chancellor dominates Thursday's papers.

The Financial Times says he delivered a "defiantly upbeat Budget" that offered a £9bn tax break for business and "conjured up" what it calls a "tax bonanza" for some of the highest-earning pension savers. It says he focused most of his "fiscal firepower" on tax breaks for business to increase investment.

The Daily Express describes the chancellor as "resolute" and says he promised a "brighter future for Britain" after seeing off a recession. It pictures Mr Hunt on a visit he made to a nursery after delivering the Budget, which included an expansion of free childcare for under-threes as part of measures to encourage parents back to work.

The Budget was "pots for the rich", according to the Daily Mirror. The paper contrasts the scrapping of the £1m limit on pension pots for the wealthy with the lack of any announcements to help public sector workers, who it says are "desperate for a pay rise".

The Guardian declares that the budget "hands a huge pension giveaway to the wealthiest 1%" to help "stem the tide of people leaving the workforce". It calls Mr Hunt's decision to scrap the limit on tax-free pension saving as the "only major surprise" in his speech. In the paper's analysis, Larry Elliot says that, despite the chancellor's "bullish performance", living standards are on course for their biggest two-year fall since the 1950s.

Reuters

Bank of England officials have held emergency talks with international counterparts amid concern about the health of Swiss banking giant Credit Suisse

The Times highlights forecasts by the Office for Budget Responsibility suggesting that, by 2027, freezes to thresholds on income tax and national insurance will be equivalent to a 4p rise on the basic rate of income tax. The paper accuses Mr Hunt of "waving through" the biggest tax burden since World War Two. The i says 6 million people will be dragged into higher tax bands as a result of the threshold freezes.

The Mail says Mr Hunt delivered an "assured performance and eye-catching reforms" but that Tory MPs have warned him he now has to "move faster to cut a soaring tax burden". The Sun is celebrating what it calls a "victory on fuel". The paper has been campaigning for fuel duty to be frozen and has been urging Mr Hunt not to go ahead with a proposed increase of 12p a litre. It says drivers will save £100 a year and tells the chancellor in its headline: "Tanks a lot!"

Concerns about the health of Swiss banking giant Credit Suisse lead the Telegraph. The paper says that officials from the Bank of England held emergency talks with international counterparts after stock markets tumbled on Wednesday amid fears of a "potential financial disaster at one of Europe's biggest banks". It adds that the collapse of Credit Suisse would "rock banks and pension funds around the world" and says Switzerland's central bank has pledged that it will be propped up if necessary.