Labour leader Ed Miliband exposed the gap between Chancellor George Osborne's rhetoric and the reality faced by people across Britain yesterday.

Mr Miliband began his retort to the Chancellor's latest Budget by reminding him of a previous pledge to grow the economy "steadily and sustainably."

He quoted figures that show living standards have slumped "sharply and steeply" in 44 of the 45 months since the Tories took power.

"Today the Chancellor simply reminded people of the gap between his rhetoric and the reality of people's lives," he said.

"No amount of smoke and mirrors can hide it."

Labour backbenchers rammed home the point by aping a Tory chamber chant used to boast about falling unemployment, shouting "down" as Mr Miliband listed the months of misery for working people.

Tories were also reminded of the 350,000 people dependant on food banks, 400,000 disabled people paying the bedroom tax and 4.6 million families facing tax credit cuts.

Deputy Speaker Lindsay Hoyle compared uncomfortable Tory MPs to "wolves" as they howled to avoid hearing the truth.

Cutting through the Chancellor's headline Budget pre-election bung of a tax cut for low earners, Mr Miliband pointed out it followed no less than 14 tax hikes on working people.

He contrasted that and the freeze on nurses' and other public-sector workers' wages with the £200,000-a-year tax break given to bankers last year.

And he insisted only the "Chancellor's chums" would benefit from further Tory rule as there were more old Etonians writing the nasty party's next manifesto than there are women in the Cabinet.