Budget
Can Labour save its Budget?
After the Office for Budget Responsibility’s assessment of the Budget was published on Wednesday, the cost of government borrowing started…
Britain can grow faster than the OBR thinks
The UK economy may end up growing a bit faster by the end of this decade than the Office for…
Three tests for Reeves’s first Budget
It’s Budget day in Westminster. The question being asked by Labour MPs: can Rachel Reeves pull it off? This lunchtime,…
Will there be a surprise in Rachel Reeves’s Budget?
Most chancellors pull a rabbit out of a hat during their Budget statements – something to delight their own MPs…
Portrait of the week: Budget leaks, prisoners released and Israel kills Hamas leader
Home Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, was expected to freeze tax thresholds in the Budget on 30 October,…
Wahed’s alarming Tube adverts
As the interminable Budget wait goes on, so does the trawl through the Chancellor’s bin bags. I refer to the…
Jeremy Hunt’s fantasy Budget
As Rachel Reeves prepares what is potentially the most difficult Budget in a generation, a question occurs: what if the…
Jeremy Hunt defends the Tories’ long-term economic record
A Chancellor’s Sunday media appearance before a Budget often serves as a ‘free pass’ – not because difficult questions aren’t…
What ‘Budget’ and ‘bilge’ have in common
The Budget (which the revolutionary fiscal act last week was technically not) is directly connected with bilge and with one…
Is Rishi Sunak any good at politics?
Is Rishi Sunak any good at politics? In recent days Labour sources have been putting it about that they no…
Does Rishi Sunak really understand red wall voters?
Rishi Sunak thinks Boris Johnson goofed badly when he conspiring to upend Commons standards procedures and agrees with his colleagues…
Will the Tories cut taxes before the next election?
The Tory party has reached a fork in the road, I say in the Times today. One path involves sticking…
Portrait of the week: Queen stays home, Boris rubbishes recycling and pay freeze thaws
Home The Queen will not attend the COP26 meeting in Glasgow next week; she had resumed light duties after having…
My night of nostalgia with Boris and co.
Rishi Sunak had a pre-game Twix and a Sprite to prepare for this week’s impressive Budget. I used to have…
Would the real Rishi Sunak please stand up?
It was a tale of two chancellors at today’s high-spending Budget. Rishi Sunak began by embracing the big-state profligacy pursued…
Rishi Sunak's low tax pitch to MPs
Is Rishi Sunak a low tax chancellor? He certainly likes to tell anyone who will listen that he is. Yet…
Six things we learnt from the Budget
Another big fiscal event for Rishi Sunak today, as he delivered his Budget and the details of a three-year spending…
Responsible Rishi's Budget balancing act
Rishi Sunak has released photos of his Budget prep, as he prepares to stand up in the House of Commons…
Sunak faces the free-marketeers
Rishi Sunak didn’t give too much away tonight when he spoke at the ThinkTent Conservative Party Conference. The Chancellor is…
When will Boris get serious about balancing the budget?
Should we be pleased that net government borrowing for June came in below expectations, at £22.8 billion – £5.5 billion…
The Budget could be an awkward moment for fiscal conservatives
There is no getting around the fact that these are awkward times for fiscal conservatives, such as myself. It has…
Are the Tories about to ditch one of their biggest policy achievements?
We already know much of what will be in Rishi Sunak’s Budget next week. Another £30bn for Covid-relief measures: furlough…
The Budget’s corona contagion
When Sajid Javid resigned in a row with No. 10, there was much speculation about what would be in the…
The Budget will show how the Tories plan to win the next election
It’s only a few weeks until Budget day and the papers are filled with reports of the various revenue-raising measures…
What is the point of Philip Hammond?
What is the point of Philip Hammond? Most chancellors have an agenda, but it’s hard to discern any purpose or…
