Commenting on the Chancellor of the Exchequer's budget, Harlow's Liberal Democrat parliamentary spokesman Lorna Spenceley said:

Gordon Brown's budget is a sticking plaster to patch things up in the run-up to the General Election. He's tinkered with council tax rebates, but hasn't tackled the fundamental unfairness of the local tax system, or got to grips with pensioner poverty.

Free local bus travel is something we welcome - it was in the Liberal Democrats' pre-manifesto. Increasing the stamp duty threshold is also welcome, though it's not by enough to help the average first time buyer.

But there are five things missing from Labour's budget: scrapping student fees, scrapping charges for long term personal care for the elderly, replacing council tax with a fair system of local income tax, boosting the state pension for over-75s by over £100 a month for single pensioners and over £140 a month for pensioner couples; and putting 10,000 more police on the best, paid for by scrapping ID cards. Liberal Democrats in government would have delivered all these.