Ex-Brexit minister Lord Frost warned Jeremy Hunt‘s plan to bring down national insurance by 2p is “fiddling while Rome burns”.

The Tory peer told Sky News: “What I want to see is a Budget that deals with the problems the country has got and it does have lots and lots of problems, there is no doubt about that.

“But what I’d like to hear is the Chancellor setting out a strategy, telling us that there is no future for this country as a high-tax, high-spend social democrat economy, coming up with a strategy that is going to focus on growth.

“The economy is not growing. Incomes per head are actually falling and people can feel it. We need something that deals with that and I’m afraid welcome as a 2p cut in National Insurance would be, it is really just sort of fiddling while Rome burns, I’m afraid.”