What they said

Emergency Budget 2010 – Reaction to the Chancellor's Speech

'I'm not going to hide hard choices from the British people or bury them in the small print of the Budget document... Yes it is tough, but it is also fair'
Chancellor George Osborne

'It is the Chancellor's first Budget but we have seen it all before. It is the same old Tories, hitting hardest at those who can least afford it and breaking their promises'
Acting Labour leader Harriet Harman

'The Chancellor has achieved his twin objectives of setting out a credible plan for the public finances and producing a convincing growth strategy for the longer term'
CBI Director General Richard Lambert

'The economy is still fragile, and today's measures will certainly slow recovery and could well stop it in its tracks'
TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber

'As a result of this Budget millions of pensioners and those on low incomes will be helped and people with greater wealth will contribute most'
Deputy Liberal Democrat leader Simon Hughes

'Today's Budget could be a defining moment in Britain's economic history'
BCC Chief Economist David Kern

Profile: George Osborne - Chancellor of the Exchequer

Name: Rt Hon George Osborne MP

Age: 39

Education: Degree in modern history from Oxford University.

Positions held: Following a brief spell as a freelance journalist, George Osborne joined the Conservative Research Department in 1994. He became an MP for Tatton in 2001 and has focused on a wide range of areas in his career – including Work and Pensions, Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, and Transport.

He served as Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury and Shadow Economic Secretary, as well as sitting on the Public Accounts Select Committee, before becoming Shadow Chancellor in 2005.

Osborne was appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer in May 2010, and became the youngest Chancellor for more than a century.