Labour’s first budget was supposed to end 14 years of austerity without inducing the kind of shock associated with Liz Truss. Yet within months, Rachel Reeves’s mix of spending increases, higher taxes on business and extra borrowing for investment has begun to unravel.
Not so much in response to the bond market jitters of last week, when panicky traders raised the cost of government borrowing to a level not seen since the financial crash a decade and a half ago – this reaction was sparked in part by a lack of confidence in Donald Trump’s economic plans and could prove short-lived. The unravelling relates more to domestic issues and how Reeves, when she delivers her next financial statement in March, will be forced to admit that the financial leeway she gave herself in October has gone.
