UK Chancellor George Osborne has done it again – last week he championed yet another austerity-driven Budget, despite missing nearly every economic target he has set.

It will come as no surprise to anyone that I do not agree with Osborne’s way of doing things.

I support investment in our industries to encourage economic growth, not brutally cutting the services and welfare keeping our most vulnerable citizens afloat.

However, George Osborne has instead pursued an austerity project and established the Office of Budget Responsibility with the purported aim of meeting economic targets.

Many, including myself, would argue that these targets are fairly arbitrary considering the rates of foodbank usage and child poverty we have to contend with – but they are his targets, which he has set for himself.

He has missed every single one of the major targets he has set himself - in any other job he would have been sacked by now.

After failing to eliminate the deficit by the end of the last Parliament, the Office of Budget Responsibility (OBR) has downgraded its forecasts for economic growth over the next four years.

The Chancellor’s austerity project has failed. And yet, because of how ideologically driven he is, he plans to cut a further £3.5 billion this year alone.

I disagree with the ideology that says we need to shrink the state to the bare bones. That said, I recognise it is a view held by many politicians.

However, even those who wish to scale back the role the state plays are utterly aghast at the Chancellor's assault on the disabled of this country.

The Chancellor is even facing a backlash from his own Tory MPs because of their indefensible plans to cut £4.4b from Personal Independence Payments (PIP) for disabled people over the next parliament.

The Tories are cutting tens of billions more than is necessary to balance the budget - and they are using this cut to PIP as a way to fund tax cuts for top earners, through the cut to Capital Gains and increasing the 40p income tax threshold.

Scotland faces a £1b real-terms reduction to its block grant as a result of this Budget, meaning the people of Scotland will feel the impact even after the Scottish Parliament takes over the powers granted by the Scotland Bill.

More than 40,000 disabled people here in Scotland will have their incomes slashed by the cuts to PIP.

The Scottish Government will continue to govern progressively, using all the powers we have to protect our most vulnerable people from the effects of Tory austerity.

At Westminster our MPs will continue to lead other parties in putting pressure on the UK Government to reverse discriminatory policies.

Last Friday Iain Duncan Smith resigned publicly and dramatically as Department of Work and Pensions secretary, citing his disillusionment with the Chancellor’s choice to cut welfare.

Although most people see through his actions as being motivated by internal Tory politics, and not a sudden discovery of conscience, his voice joins a chorus of damning indictments of the cuts affecting disabled people.

The Prime Minister and his Chancellor must reconsider the immoral budget decisions they have made when their hatchet man disowns the cruelty of cuts.

Hopefully the pressure from across the chamber, and across society, will force a Tory u-turn on cuts to the most vulnerable, as with the cuts to Tax Credits last year.