Chancellor George Osborne:
"This is a Budget for people who aspire to work hard and get on. It’s a Budget for people who realise there are no easy answers to problems built up over many years."
"This is a Budget for those who aspire to own their own home; who aspire to get their first job; or start their own business; A Budget for those who want to save for their retirement and provide for their children. It is a Budget for our Aspiration Nation."
"Unless we fire up the aspirations of the British people, light the fires of ambition within our nation, we are going to be out-smarted, out-competed and out-performed by others in the world who are prepared to work harder for success than we are."
"This is a Budget that doesn’t duck our nation’s problems. It confronts them head on. It is a Budget for an aspiration nation. It is a Budget for a Britain that wants to be prosperous, solvent and free."
Leader of the Opposition Ed Miliband:
The Chancellor is "the wrong man in the wrong place" to fix the country
Lib-Dem peer Lord Oakeshott:
"Osborne is peering at the economy through rose-coloured spectacles".
