There is a fundamental deceit at the core of John Healey’s Budget. Or perhaps, rather, a self-deceit. Either way, it is an endeavour to calm or gull the citizenry. It will not work.

The Chancellor talked in his Commons address of “the first hundred days” of the Government he serves. At other points, he referred repeatedly to the legacy he had inherited, such as a “broken system” of welfare.

His aim, evidently, was to leave the impression that he was facing these problems afresh. That this was Year Zero. A new beginning. And that, by definition, it would take ample time to solve these deep-seated problems. It was a plea for public patience.

But this timescale is bogus. This is not remotely the first hundred days of a new administration. Rather, it is considerably more than two years since Britain kicked out the Tories.

Andy Burnham did not enter Downing Street via a new general election. Indeed, there was much acerbic comment upon the absence of a public choice.

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Rather, there was a change at the top – of Labour. The same party continued in power, with the same mandate and majority, inherited from Sir Keir Starmer, who has been consigned to political oblivion.

Burnham and Healey govern, legislate and pronounce by virtue of Starmer’s electoral victory. There is a clear line which traces back........

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