Tory party chairman: 'I drink beer and I love a game of bingo'

The Conservative Party chairman Grant Shapps has hit back at criticism of an advert he tweeted celebrating the cuts in bingo tax and beer duty.

The party advert said the measures were "to help hardworking people do more of the things they enjoy". The Tories and Mr Shapps were accused of being "condescending" by Labour and the Lib Dems.

Read more: Shapps 'bingo and beer' Budget poster sparks online spoofs

On a trip to Carlisle, he told BBC Radio Cumbria: "We can all argue about whether the word should be 'they' or 'us' or whatever.

"Personally, I drink beer and I love a game of bingo so I can't see why on earth they think this is more important than talking the long-term economic future of our country, supporting actually sectors like bingo or the local pubs."

The Conservatives' online Budget ad has been described by Ed Balls as "patronising and embarrassing".

The Shadow Chancellor held a printout of the online-only poster in the House of Commons as he said it poster showed the Tories were "out of touch".

Read: Backlash at 'patronising' online Budget ad

One Twitter user came up with a new way of spoofing yesterday's Budget, following measures aimed to please beer drinkers and bingo-goers.

Read: Budget for 'makers, doers and savers'

Nick Clegg has described the Conservatives' online Budget advert as "silly" but denied that George Osborne's statement marked a "Budget for plebs".

"It was a coalition budget through and through," the deputy prime minister told a caller on his regular LBC radio phone-in.

"I am really very proud of all of it," he added.

Read: Backlash at 'patronising' online Budget advert

There is no question of the Conservatives' 'patronising' online Budget advert being pulled, a senior source has said.

The source said it could not be withdrawn as it was not part of a wider campaign involving other media such as TV and radio.

But they added: "We are quite proud of those tax cuts... We stand by what was said in that advert."

Read: Backlash at 'patronising' online Budget advert

George Osborne said Labour was only attacking the Conservatives' Bingo duty advert "because they don't have anything else to say about the economy."

The Chancellor told Daybreak he was "proud" the budget was helping with tax on Bingo so the halls could stay open.

The "patronising" advert tweeted by Conservative party chairman Grant Shapps is "quite a small issue" when compared to the rest of the budget, according to a Lib Dem minister.

David Laws told Daybreak: "It's not something that I worry about tremendously - how the Conservatives chose to present things in the Chancellor's budget.

"I'm far more concerned about the big fundamentals here. The big fundamentals are firstly that we are getting recovery back and borrowing down."

Labour MP Jon Ashworth hit out at the "beer and bingo" online advert tweeted from Tory party chairman Grant Shapps, saying it shows how out of touch the government is.

Read: Tories' bingo and beer poster backlash spawns parodies

George Osborne's Liberal Democrat deputy in the Treasury joined the chorus of criticism against the Tory bingo advert tweeted by Grant Shapps, saying he thought it was "patronising".

Treasury Chief Secretary Danny Alexander told BBC2's Newsnight:

More: Tories bingo and beer poster backlash spawns parodies

Twitter users have been sharing their thoughts on the Budget poster tweeted by Tory party chairman Grant Shapps, when he hailed the bingo and beer tax breaks as "helping hardworking people do more of the things they enjoy".

Read: Tories' Budget tweet backlash sparks parody versions

#Torybingo is one currently one of the top trending topics on the social media site within the UK