Jeremy Hunt’s Budget shows why mothers like me feel abandoned by the Tories

In his last Budget before a general election, Hunt made an aggressive play for the votes of lower and middle income families. And as a working mother of two feeling the pinch – with rising housing costs, high childcare fees and inflation-busting food and energy prices – he certainly got me listening, writes Hannah Fearn – but it’s not enough

The chancellor announced a rise in the threshold for repayment of child benefit from £50,000 to £60,000 a year (Getty Images)

No wonder Labour is silent on policy right now. The longer Keir Starmer keeps quiet on his forthcoming manifesto promises, the more the Conservatives creep into their territory and start bringing their ideas into policy. In his last Budget before a general election, Jeremy Hunt was making an aggressive play for the votes of lower and middle-income families. And as a working mother of two feeling the pinch – with rising housing costs, high childcare fees and inflation-busting food and energy prices – he certainly got me listening.

Many of the pledges the chancellor made, including a 2 per cent cut in National Insurance, had been so widely trailed that nobody was expecting a rabbit-out-of-the-hat moment. But the closest we got was on one very important measure: a rise in the threshold for repayment of child benefit from £50,000 to £60,000 a year.

From April, this means that families will be able to claim some form of child benefit until one parent’s salary hits £80,000. As a result more than 500,000 families with young children – including mine – will retain more than £1,300 a year. That makes a huge difference to disposable income at a time of rapid inflation.