UUP: 'We do not tolerate unnecessary suffering of animals - but this budget spells just that for humans'

Meanwhile the TUV said that the budget is simply a weapon in the hands of the Tory government, which is using it to “beat unionism into submission” over the ongoing Stormont boycott.

UUP health spokesman Alan Chambers said: “A flat cash allocation is in reality a significant reduction for the Department of Health when inflation is factored in.

"Before the previous Executive collapsed last February ago all parties, at least publicly anyway, committed to making our health service a priority...

“Once again more people are now going to be forced to make the sometimes impossible decision of paying huge and often unaffordable prices for private treatment or stay at home in distress and in pain relying on ever increasing strengths of medication just to get by.

"Here in Northern Ireland we rightly don’t tolerate animals suffering and yet thanks to today’s budget allocation we know that will be the inevitable outcome for more of our loved ones."

Meanwhile Jim Allister said: “It is clear the Secretary of State, disgracefully, is using the budget as a stick to try and beat Unionism into submission over Stormont.

“Ironically, Stormont’s squander and mismanagement has contributed substantially to the poor budgetary situation.

“If Chris Heaton-Harris thinks the stick of this budget and then the carrot of a financial bung will cause Unionists to roll over and implement the Union-dismantling Protocol, then, I trust he will be severely disappointed.”

Northern Ireland's budget broken down: Whose funding is growing and whose is shrinking in 2023/24?