Liz Truss or George Osborne? For Rachel Reeves, neither is exactly her political lodestar. From a Labour perspective, the former moved far too fast with her 'mini-Budget' and in doing so sparked a run on gilts. In contrast, the latter slowly strangled the UK economy with cuts to capital spending and fired the starting gun on a precipitous decline in public services. Yet, as the Budget – by far the biggest moment of this parliament – approaches, the chancellor appears stuck somewhere between the two.
At Treasury questions this morning, Reeves stated (and not for the first time) that growth was "the number one priority of this government". So far, so Trussian. But in virtually the same breath, the chancellor repeated the £22bn fiscal blackhole she says was left to her by the previous government, an inheritance Labour likes to claim is the worst since the Second World War. That all sounds eerily Osbornite.
