If the heavy hints on Wednesday from Rishi Sunak are to be believed, the Government’s got a Halloween trick up its sleeve.
October 30, the day before the annual celebration of ghosties and ghoulies, is when Chancellor Rachel Reeves will present her first Budget. She’s made no secret already that treats will be few and far between.
Addressing the first session of Prime Minister’s Questions after the party conference season, the Conservative leader (for now) noted that Sir Keir Starmer promised in the election campaign no increases to taxes for working people.
But, Mr Sunak demanded, what about employers’ National Insurance contributions?
The PM dodged with the time-honoured response that he would not be pre-empting details of the Budget, and attacked the Tories for walking away from a fiscal horror show when they lost the election in July.
But the questions are piling up as the Chancellor finalises her big pitch to the nation. Already there are strong hints that Labour could relax the Treasury’s fiscal rules in order to fund infrastructure projects - just as the never-ending debate about HS2 takes a new track.
Mr Sunak asked of Sir Keir: “Before the election his Chancellor said changing the debt target in the fiscal rules would be tantamount to fiddling the figures. Does he still agree with the Chancellor?”
The PM replied: “This is literally the man who was in charge of the economy - 14 years they’ve crashed the economy. What did they leave? A £22 billion black hole in the economy.”
Mr Sunak missed a trick by inviting an obvious attack on the Conservatives’ economic record.
He only referred in passing to Sir Keir’s own more recent vulnerabilities, notably over the sidelining of Sue Gray from her role as No10 chief of staff to make way for Labour’s election mastermind, Morgan McSweeney.
That came after a summer of rows over corporate freebies and winter fuel payments for pensioners. A more recent issue rocking Labour has been Sir Keir’s decision to cede control of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius - minus a strategic UK-US military base.
The PM had a retort ready on that - but Mr Sunak didn’t raise the issue, and the opportunity to hit back only came about obliquely in reply to a question from Sir Ed Davey.
The Liberal Democrat leader highlighted the post-Brexit plight of Falkland Island fishermen facing ruinous tariffs to sell their catch into the European Union.
“He’s going to give them away!” Tory backbenchers heckled at Sir Keir.
The PM, bristling, rose to his feet to recount how his mother’s brother served in the Falklands War and nearly lost his life when HMS Antelope was bombed and sunk by Argentinian aircraft.
“I’m very clear about the Falklands. It’s personal to me,” he said. “They are British, and they will remain British,” he added, stressing that Gibraltar would too.
The sun hasn’t quite set on the last vestiges of the Empire, but it’s about to for one of the three Tory contenders left in the race to succeed Mr Sunak. He’s on his final stretch as leader before the new one takes over on November 2.
Halloween and the Budget will have been and gone. The US election will be looming instead, with the prospect of Donald Trump 2.0 looming as the spectre at the feast.
