PEOPLE have been “crushingly disappointed” by the Budget because it did not signal the end of austerity as Prime Minister Theresa May had promised, shadow chancellor John McDonnell said today.

There was no new money for local policing and teachers are really angry that there was no cash for day-to-day running of schools, he told ITV’s Good Morning Britain.

Chancellor Philip Hammond clarified today’s BBC Today programme that his Budget pledge of £400 million for schools to spend on “little extras” is for building maintenance and equipment, meaning it cannot be spent on staffing or even the pens, books and toilet paper that many schools have been begging parents to shell out for.

Later in the Commons, Mr McDonnell said: “The Budget was not the end of austerity … two-thirds of the planned welfare benefit cuts will still be rolled out. Outside of the NHS, departmental budgets are flat. And the Resolution Foundation this morning revealed that some departments face a further 3 per cent cut in their budgets by 2023.

“For most people, ending austerity isn’t just about halting some of the cuts planned by the government. It’s about lifting the burden that austerity has imposed upon them and their community. It’s about repairing some of the damage that’s been inflicted on our society. That has undermined our social fabric.

“Yesterday, the Chancellor claimed that this is a turning point. It is a turning point but not in the way he suggested. This isn’t the end of austerity, but it is the beginning of the end of the dominance of an economic theory and practice that has wreaked havoc in our communities.

“People no longer believe the myth that austerity was necessary bcause they’re seeing this government hand out £110 billion tax giveaways to the rich and corporations while their services are being cut.

“They no longer accept the trickle-down economics that has gripped the Tory Party for four decades. That somehow, if you cut taxes for the rich and for corporations, this wealth will trickle down to everybody.

“They no longer accept ‘public sector bad, private sector good.’ Privatisation and deregulation are anathema to them now.”

Institute for Fiscal Studies director Paul Johnson said the Budget was “no bonanza” for public services.

He said: “Cuts are not about to be reversed.

“If I were a prison governor, a local authority chief executive or a head teacher, I would struggle to find much to celebrate. I would be preparing for more difficult years ahead.”