Budget 2013: Ed Miliband tells Osborne he is a "downgraded Chancellor"

Leader of the Opposition Ed Miliband said the Chancellor's speech was "a downgraded budget from a downgraded chancellor".

The Labour leader seized on growth forecasts from the Office for Budget Responsibility which has been slashed from 1.2% to 0.6% this year.

He added that after three years in power and four budgets, George Osborne has made no progress in restarting the economy.

[Related: Full coverage of chancellor George Osborne's 2013 Budget speech]

He said: "All he offers is more of the same: higher borrowing, lower growth ... more of the same Budget from a downgraded Chancellor.

"Britain deserves better than this."

Attacking the Chancellor's austerity measures, he added: "After all the misery, all the harsh medicine, three years, no progress, deal broken. Same old Tories and all he offers is more of the same. It’s as if they really do believe their own propaganda, that the failure is nothing to do with them. We’ve heard all the excuses.

The Labour leader said the OBR had confirmed living standards would fall over the course of the Parliament, meaning families would be worse off in 2015 than they had been in 2010.

He said: "It's official: You are worse off under the Tories."

[Related: The Budget 2013: Losers]

Mr Miliband mocked the failure of the Chancellor to make any reference to Britain's loss of its Triple A rating with credit agencies during his hour long budget speech.

He said both Mr Cameron and Mr Osborne had repeatedly stated the importance of the rating, which was stripped from Britain earlier this year.

Mr Miliband said: "The Chancellor said it would be humiliating for Britain to be downgraded. He is not just a downgraded Chancellor, he is a humiliated Chancellor too."

During the budget Mr Osborne told MPs there were "no easy answers" to the country's ongoing economic problems.

He said, "Together with the British people we are slowly but surely fixing our country's economic problems."

But Mr Miliband accused the Chancellor of offering the same harsh austerity measures he did three years ago.

[Related: Budget 2013: The key points]

Returning to the widely-criticised 2012 Budget, Mr Miliband highlighted the series of u-turns the Government made.

But he said the only policy ministers had proved committed to was the cut in the top rate of income tax from 50p to 45p.

Mr Miliband asked Prime Minister David Cameron if he had benefited from the tax cut. He refused to engage with the Labour leader, who then turned to the rest of the Conservative benches to "raise their hands" if they benefit.

And in a nod to the Chancellor's new Twitter account, Mr Miliband said: "Today, the Chancellor joined Twitter, he could have got it all into 140 characters: Growth down, borrowing up, families hit, and millionaires laughing all the way to the bank. Hashtag downgraded Chancellor."

Growth down, borrowing up, families hit, and millionaires laughing all the way to the bank #downgradedchancellor twitter.com/Ed_Miliband/st…

— Ed Miliband (@Ed_Miliband) March 20, 2013