‘They need more backbone’: budget disappointment reigns in Peterlee

Sisters Anne Hall (left) and Abigail Maughan outside Lidl, Peterlee. Photograph: Gary Calton/The Guardian

“There’s bits and pieces of this and that but I don’t see any coherent drive for growth,” said an underwhelmed Labour stalwart, David Taylor-Gooby, about Rachel Reeves’s budget.

“They need more backbone. They need to have a sense of moral purpose. They need to sort the economy out.”