ED Miliband and Ed Balls sat on the Opposition front bench with heads shaking, faces gurning and fingers jabbing

ED Miliband and Ed Balls sat on the Opposition front bench with heads shaking, faces gurning and fingers jabbing – an attempt to knock "boy" George out of kilter.

Despite the Justice Secretary Ken Clarke appearing to nod off halfway through George Osborne's Budget speech, the Chancellor did solidify his reputation as a Commons performer yesterday.

He openly admitted at the start of his speech that it was a "fiscally neutral" budget, but he highlighted that now the hard spending cuts had been pushed through, there would be no more.

He then went on to reel off measure after measure aimed at boosting business, building on the Government's plan to rebalance the economy towards the private sector.


There was an acceleration of cuts in corporation tax, tax breaks in 21 new enterprise zones and tax breaks for business that wanted to invest in other business.

Osborne said he would not yet abolish the top 50p rate of tax introduced by Gordon Brown. But he announced a review of the rate – the first step towards scrapping it.

That, along with measures to simplify the tax code, he said, would make Britain a more attractive place for foreign investment.

Small and big business will take a degree of comfort from the budget, but his two big announcements – cuts in the cost of fuel at the pump and in income tax for the bottom half of earners – were aimed at people in the streets.

While both were modest cuts, Osborne trumpeted them triumphantly enough to make his troops really believe this was a budget for growth.

But that is just where Osborne's big show could fall flat – as pointed out by Ed Miliband.

Last year's Budget was about rescuing the economy and this year's was supposed to be the next stage, stimulating growth. But has step one been completed?

The most recent figures showed a 0.6% contraction in the economy, and growth forecasts have been downgraded.

Miliband mocked the coalition for blaming the contraction on bad weather.

It may have been the wrong kind of snow for the economy but it was clearly the right kind of snow for skiing, he said, nodding to the Chancellor's expensive Swiss holiday last year.

If the Government's policies have caused pain so far and have been implemented while the economy shrinks, went Miliband's attack, how can we believe policies from the same source will magic us into growth?

"Belief" is the key word. How well received the Budget is depends on which way your belief swings – if you have faith in the Chancellor and the economy does return to growth, this Budget will be remembered as the one that cements his economic legacy.

If you are faithless and you believe the coalition's cuts have crippled Britain, this Budget will do little to change your mind.