Tomorrow, as Chancellor Jeremy Hunt delivers his first Budget speech, he will be faced across the Despatch Box by Sir Keir Starmer and shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves. Yet his true opponents will be the ghosts of Conservatism’s recent past: Boris Johnson and the ethical crash that ended his shambolic premiership; Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng, whose disastrous economic strategy was as damaging to the credibility of UK plc as it was mercifully short-lived.
In word and deed, the Chancellor will seek — as he did in the Autumn Statement on November 17 – to reassure the markets and voters that the derangement of 2022 is well and truly over, and that he and Rishi Sunak are rigorously committed to a strategy of calm competence.
