Four days after a Budget is usually the time when it starts to unravel. Some within Labour see it as a victory of sorts for Rachel Reeves that, so far, the post-Budget debate has focused mostly on the run-up to her statement rather than the measures it contained. Certain policies – such as business rates changes for small businesses – have the potential to blow up into political rows. But the collapse of the Chancellor’s authority this summer has meant the Budget did not contain any serious reform that could stir up major trouble. 

Reeves made it through her media round but the impression was, at times, shifty and unconvincing

Fearing confrontation with the markets and backbenchers, the Chancellor instead chose to generate much of her £26 billion in tax rises from the ‘stealth tax’ of freezing income tax thresholds, thereby dragging millions into higher brackets – a decision fitting with the trend of the last government. In the absence of a meaty policy row, the Tory opposition has thus focused its guns on the story Reeves spun in the........

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