Today will see Jeremy Hunt delivering the final budget before the General Election.

As the Chancellor raises the Red Box, he will be hoping that his economic plans are enough to pull his party over the finishing line in the election. He will hope people will vote based on his false promises of a brighter tomorrow, rather than the harsh realities of everyday life.

Today people will read the headlines, tomorrow these same headlines will unravel as the economists scrutinise the budget line by line. By the end of the week, it will be largely forgotten as the reality of daily living keeps kicking in.

Many are still struggling with high rents and mortgages; still deciding whether the heating can be switched on; still wondering if they can afford fuel for the car; and still shocked by the cost of the weekly shop. State support – whether pensions or benefits – still isn’t stretching far enough.

Many valued services have been left in tatters. Council funding has been stripped to the bone, waiting lists for a GPs and dentists (if you can get one) are often jaw dropping and funding for youth services has vanished. Crime is soaring in many areas - with police shortages taking their toll on our communities.

The 14 years of Tory Government will certainly leave its mark, much the way the Thatcher Government did.

It is 40 years since her Government announced the cull of 20,000 jobs in the pits and the miners walked out in the most bitter of strikes.

It was their failure to protect labour that caused such hardship. Four decades on, it is the additional failure to invest in future sustainable technologies that has left us at the mercy of international oil and gas markets and private profiteers.

Thatcher’s ideology tore into working people’s livelihoods then, as Cameron, May, Johnson, Truss and Sunak's ideologies have again in this Tory era.

We pay for the Government's poor choices. The cost of more austerity, bouts of recession, and - as if I need to remind you - the Liz Truss budget that stripped billions out of the economy, near crashing the pensions market and holding us all ransom to pay off her debts.

To date this Government has served up 25 tax increases on the British public, a record in itself, but rather than these increases funding a stronger welfare state and good quality public services, we know they are filling the hole created by dodgy PPE contracts and failure to invest in raising productivity.

Businesses will look back and wonder where the last 14 years have gone.

Those working hard in York’s hospitality and tourism industry want some VAT relief as they juggle their books. We were promised ‘Brexit bonuses’ and to be given ‘back control’ over things like VAT. Nothing has changed.

Budgets are full of promises, but this time they run thin. The budget will be so devoid of hope that Government have even cut short the traditional budget debate in Westminster by a whole day.

Governments are meant to give assurances to the public over good stewardship, sound economic planning and economic stability and opportunity. This Government has lost sight of purpose and lost sight of the people that the Government is meant to serve.

There is only one way forward to economic competence.

Labour will stabilise the economy; we have to. We cannot allow for more economic stress and volatility. We will not put your earnings and savings at risk. We want to invest in your futures instead.

It will be no easy task, but having examined the wasted opportunities, we know that it is possible to grow productivity, to invest in public services, people and planet, and to create a climate where entrepreneurs and business owners can drive forward their ambitions and create a better world for our children.

Economic competence has always been central to Labour’s values, whether with Keir Hardy, Labour’s first leader in 1900, to Keir Starmer today.

We want people to reap their reward, services to meet the need, and everyone to recover from the economic stress of self-indulgent Tory economics which has brought the country to its knees.

This budget makes the case for an economic reset, where the country and communities are once again served by Labour in the interest of the common good.

Rachael Maskell is the Labour MP for York Central