On Saturday Keir Starmer and his government had been in office for 100 difficult days. Far-right riots, rows between top officials in No 10, a furore over freebies in an administration claiming to be in the service of the nation. Starmer now refers to them as “choppy days”, and the latter two as “side winds” he insists will not push him off course.
For cabinet ministers in big spending departments, another frustration has mounted since they celebrated winning a landslide on 4 July. Waiting for the budget. New governments – Labour’s in 1997, and the Tory/Lib Dem coalition in 2010 – have tended to hold their first budgets in double-quick time to set direction and establish a clear sense of purpose.
