'The country has not been working for ordinary people in Sandwell or Dudley for decades' - Labour deputy Lucy Powell

The Manchester Central MP was keen to talk about the autumn Budget on Wednesday which featured headline announcements such as cuts to energy bills, a rise in the minimum wage and extending a freeze on tax thresholds for an extra three years.

She said the party had made some difficult choices, but had made them to help support people struggling to get by - and said the choices made had been popular with the people she had spoken to.

She said: "I'm pleased with the Budget and it's a difficult context, but as a Labour Government, I think we've made some really clear choices in this Budget to support people with cost of living and those who are struggling to get by and asking those people with the broader shoulders through things like the mansion tax or changing a tax system to make it fairer to those who earn their income from their assets and their wealth.

"We're making these choices to support ordinary working people with their cost of living and asking those with the broader shoulders to pay their fair share and I know that people aren't going to like it when you deliver a Labour Budget that supports people that support Labour and ordinary working people, our political opponents and our opponents in the media aren't going to like it.

"That's why we're here today, talking directly to people, and I know that many of the measures that we've announced in the Budget are really popular with people and that's the direction of travel people want to see.

"We're not going to turn the country around with one Budget, this is taking a big programme and we've got a plan to renew the country over the next 10 years and it's going to take a number of Budgets, a number of policies and the plans we've got to really change the country for the better and for the people of this area."

Ms Powell said her conversations with people during her visit to Sandwell had seen people asking her about how the Budget would benefit them and how they were dubious they would see anything from the Budget come down to them.

Accusations the party had broken promises about taxation were also addressed by Ms Powell, who said she stood by the party's manifesto and what it was doing to help working people.

"We're here to say that, yes, they actually will [benefit], like in April when they get £150 off their energy bill and their wages will go up - and we're protecting the triple-lock for pensions, which means over £500 more for pensioners from April.

"I think they've heard the headlines and they want to see it in action, which I think people will really start to see the benefits of in April.

"We had a big manifesto of change and that was on the front page of our manifesto, so we're here to change the country, one which has not been working for ordinary people in Sandwell or Dudley for decades, and we're here to change that in their interests.

"That means tackling child poverty, getting NHS waiting lists down, giving councils and mayors more of the resources to get more of the infrastructure and support that they need for local people and it's through all of those things that this Labour Government is changing."

Ms Powell offered thanks to the Express & Star for its work campaigning for hospices, saying hospices were important places because of the care they provided, which was reflected in the extra funding going into it from the Government.

She said: "Hospices are such an important part of society and community and when people are at the end of life and need that palliative care, you absolutely need hospices, and we've put in extra funding for hospices and given more long-term certainty about some of those funding streams going forward.

"Hospices are absolutely vital to us and a core part of what we're about and we're doing our very best in difficult circumstances to support them in the ways that we can."

Being in the Midlands had also helped Ms Powell to see the transport infrastructure being built up through the West Midlands Metro extension and she said, as a Manchester MP and with the extensive network around the city, she understood the benefits that good transport links could bring to an area.

She said: "I've seen, over the last 30 years, the absolute game changer to a community and a local economy that trams can bring as we've now got a fantastic tram network and I fully support all of the efforts of the Mayor here and of the Government giving the Mayor extra money to extend the tram and continue to look at how investment in the tram brings new opportunities.

"It brings regeneration, it connects people to those opportunities and it lifts everyone, so investing in our transport infrastructure is absolutely critical to this region and I fully support those efforts in whatever way I can.

"That's also why we've taken trains back into public ownership so that we can get better outcomes for passengers and we can have it more reliable and more affordable, such as freezing rail fares in this Budget for the first time in 30 years.

"Having public ownership means we can make more reliable and more affordable transport systems which, in the end, help people to connect to jobs, connect to healthcare that they need, connect to education and skills - and that's what this Government is all about."

Ms Powell spoke about the lifting of the two-child cap on benefits, saying it would help thousands of children to get out of poverty in Sandwell alone, and detailed some of the other steps being made to help families.

She said: "We're doing a huge amount to help families and, as I've said, it's not just about this one Budget, it's about a range of things, and lifting the two-child benefit cap is really important because it will lift, and I am unapologetic about this, thousands of children out of poverty in Sandwell alone.

"We've also extended free childcare now, so that's a huge amount of money, saving those with children in childcare more than £7,000 a year, while breakfast clubs and extending free school meals are just some of the things we're doing and making school uniforms more affordable.

"Families with children are those that are benefitting the most from the action that this Labour Government is taking and while there is still more to do, we are proud of what we've been doing so far."