Starmer and Reeves have a majority but not a mandate and are too weak to deliver anything. Only a new leader can give the markets and the OBR confidence that they have an actual plan, says Helen Thomas

As Budget preparation ploughs into the final furlong, the next field is already lining up on the race card. The runners and riders are gathering their supporters, stiffening their sinews and making their way into the starting stalls. Any misstep in the Budget, or indeed any other policy, and the starting gun will be fired on the Labour leadership championship chase. This raises the risk that whatever Rachel Reeves announces next week will not be enacted in full. Derby Day has only just begun.

There is precedent for reversals on Budget measures. Public opinion caused a climbdown by George Osborne in the infamous “omnishambles” Budget of 2012, after a tweak to VAT intended to apply to rotisserie supermarket chickens became branded the “pasty tax”. Kenneth Clarke announced in the 1994 Budget that the full rate of VAT should be extended to domestic fuel but when the vote came to implement the measure, the government was defeated 319-311 after seven of its own MPs rebelled.

The difference this........

© City A.M.