SIR Desmond Swayne has accused the government of “chasing two antelopes” in his verdict of the budget. 

The MP for New Forest West quoted a “piece of Swahili wisdom” to the House of Commons: “Howezi kuwafukuza swala wawili: you cannot chase two antelopes,” he said. 

“That, however, is exactly what the government have been doing since they were elected.” 

He accused the Labour government of missing its “overriding” priorities to “secure economic growth by investing, investing, investing” and added their “main effort was elsewhere”.  

The 68-year-old Conservative MP said: “Their main effort was a creating a narrative in the public mind that they had inherited a wasteland, the worst inheritance of any government since kingdom come: that the wicked Tories had operated a scorched earth policy leaving absolutely everything broken, nothing working, and a huge black hole.  

“As a consequence, things would have to get worse before they could get better, and there would be implications for tax in the forthcoming budget—and, of course, we have discovered that today. 

“The reality is that investment requires an optimistic outlook. By pouring such a bucket of cold water on the British economy, what the government achieved was to reverse what was soaring business confidence and turn it into absolutely collapsing business confidence; and business confidence is the key to investment, not the great binge of borrowing that the government are about to enter into.” 

Tom Hayes, Bournemouth East MP challenged the veteran MP, saying the £63 billion of investment that came through the international investment summit “had been held back until the election”. 

Sir Desmond replied: “Much of it reannounced, and much of it put at risk by the behaviour of the transport secretary, but nevertheless an achievement. Of course I welcome any inward investment. 

“What I think is a huge risk is a great borrowing binge for exactly the sort of investment that we saw throughout the 1960s and 1970s, which never delivered.  

“Real investment—investment that improves productivity—is that which is undertaken largely by medium and small firms to invest in their own enterprises, but it is crowded out by the increased costs that are entirely a consequence of the government’s great borrowing binge.  

“On that basis, this budget is a disaster.”