There were always two camps in the internal government debate over what to do at this month’s budget, one of the most consequential in recent history. One set of advisers believed that given the scale of the fiscal challenge facing the chancellor, she should do what no chancellor has done in 50 years and put up income taxes. The other worried that breaking a key manifesto pledge would be political suicide and that Reeves should find multiple other ways to raise taxes – what some called a “smorgasbord”.
For weeks, Reeves had appeared to side with the first camp, delivering speeches warning of difficult choices to come and telling a BBC interviewer that keeping her manifesto promises would mean cutting spending.
