Tory mugger of the poor George Osborne brazenly announced a big handout to businesses and well-to-do people in his Budget yesterday.

He announced a vicious cap on welfare spending for years ahead, along with a further tightening of the screw on public spending.

The total cost of benefits will be capped at £119 billion in 2015-16, and will only rise in line with inflation thereafter.

But billions of pounds extra will go to help businesses, while better-off people will enjoy a raft of concessions on their savings and pensions.

Tory and Lib Dem MPs staged a revolting display of wild cheering when Mr Osborne announced that he would rush his welfare spending cap through Parliament next week.

Angry left MP Ian Lavery said Mr Osborne should "hang his head in shame" for his insult to people forced to claim welfare benefits.

"We are living in foodbank Britain, where benefit claimants are being sanctioned and left with nothing to eat for themselves and their children for sometimes up to a month.

"God knows what we have got to look forward to if we ever have a vicious right-wing Tory government again."

General union GMB general secretary Paul Kenny declared that the Budget "reeks of the stuck-up complacency of the well-heeled elite."

Unite general secretary Len McCluskey said: "This was a blue-rinse Budget for the stockbroker belt, who will celebrate their tax reductions and help with their savings.

"But for real Britain, this is devoid of hope and genuine effort to tackle the crisis in living standards facing ordinary people."

Mr Osborne actually boasted that after a long six years the British economy was now forecast to reach the same size as before the 2008 crisis at some time later this year.

The Chancellor announced tax cuts totalling £5.5bn, while slashing government spending by a further £5.7bn.

He told MPs: "We are securing Britain's economic future. We are turning our country around.

"We are building a resilient economy. This is a Budget for the makers, doers and savers."

Well-off savers will be able to put £15,000 per year into a new individual savings account (ISA) from July 1.

And they will be able to transfer existing cash ISAs to stocks and shares ISAs - and vice versa.

State-backed National Savings will offer new £10,000 pensioner bonds next year, offering interest rates of 2.8 per cent for one year or 4 per cent for three years.

And people will be able to cash in their pension pots without being forced to buy an annuity.

The first quarter of the pension pot will be tax-free, with tax on the rest cut from 55 per cent to 20 per cent.

Duty on bingo hall profits will be halved to 10 per cent, but duty on fixed-odds betting terminals will rise from 20 per cent to 25 per cent.

A freeze on whisky duty will save 42p per bottle. And beer duty will go down 1p per pint from next week.

A new 12-sided £1 coin in the shape of the old threepenny bit is to be introduced to combat forgery.

Labour MP John McDonnell commented: "Changing the pound into a threepenny bit is a valid symbol of this lightweight, stunt-filled threepenny bit Budget.

"Osborne's finale is allowing pensions to be cashed in to stimulate flagging spending and a short-term boom rather than using pension funds to invest."