Labour's promise not to raise our taxes is out the window

That's how the chancellor wants us to view her.

- CHRIS BLACKHURST

As a victim of circumstance, someone who came into a job that others before her had messed up - notably Liz Truss - against a backdrop of long-term low productivity, heightened global fragility and uncertainty. That was her message this morning. Poor Rachel.

But then you remember what she said before she took the post, and in the first few months of sitting in the chair, how she would drive "further and faster" on economic growth. Sure, she blamed others. There was talk of finding a "black hole" in the accounts, variously put at anywhere between £25bn and £50bn. That would have to be filled - but, don't worry, the supercharged, supremely able Reeves was in command and would steady the ship before accelerating forward.

She would manage that, too, without breaking a key pledge in the Labour manifesto, not to raise taxes on working people – namely income tax, national insurance and VAT. That promise went out of the Downing Street window this morning.