Ed Balls: 'Working people £1,600 a year worse off'

Shadow chancellor Ed Balls has ruled out a reversal of the rise in VAT in an interview on the BBC's Andrew Marr Show, adding that he is "daunted" by the size of the deficit.

In 2012, Balls called for a temporary cut in VAT in an effort to boost the economy, but says the public finances would not allow such a measure after the next election.

Mr Balls added that the breadth of the "cost of living crisis" meant it was unlikely Labour would restore child benefit for higher earners, even though he would "like to".

Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls and Labour Ed Miliband have outlined the party's six point budget plan. In an article in the Sunday Mirror, Labour say they would:

• Freeze energy bills until 2017 and reform the energy market to stop customers being ripped off
• Cut taxes for 24 million working people on middle and low incomes with a lower 10p starting rate of income tax

• Make work pay by expanding free childcare to 25 hours a week for working parents of 3 and 4 year olds
• Put young people back to work, with a job the young unemployed have to take – paid for by a tax on bank bonuses

• Get 200,000 homes built a year by 2020 and cut business rates for small firms
• Balance the books in a fairer way by reversing the £3 billion tax cut for people earning over £150,000

Read: Ed Balls - 'Working people £1,600 a year worse off'

Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls has outlined as six point budget plan, saying that the stakes are high for next week's announcement because "working people are on average £1,600 a year worse off".

Writing in the Sunday Mirror, Mr Balls said: "We can all expect George Osborne and David Cameron to try and claim everything is going well. But that’s totally out of touch when millions of working people on middle and lower incomes are not feeling any recovery at all."