The chancellor can dress it up... but this is austerity 2.0

In her spring statement, Rachel Reeves played a bad hand as well as anyone could have. She pinned the blame for a rethink only four months after her Budget on "increased global uncertainty" and "a world that is changing before our eyes". That is code for Donald Trump's tariffs and his forcing of Europe to spend more on defence.

- ANDREW GRICE

Yet the chancellor will not entirely erase the impression that her bigger-than-planned update was caused in part by her decision last October to impose a £25bn tax hit on business, which has surely contributed to the UK's anaemic growth.

Reeves used to attack Tory austerity as a "failed experiment", and in her Mais lecture a year ago called it a "major failing" which inflicted "severe damage to our social fabric and to our public services". Now the tables have turned, and the Tories are accusing her of reviving austerity. A bit cheeky given their ideological crusade to shrink the state, but many Labour MPs privately agree.

The backbench revolt against the cuts to sickness and disability benefits will be fuelled by yesterday's impact assessment showing more than 3 million families will lose an average of £1,720 a year, and an extra 250,000 people will be pushed into relative poverty by 2029-30, including 50,000 children. Nor was the government's case helped by Reeves's announcement of a further £500m squeeze on universal credit. This came after the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) fiscal watchdog said it would count only £3.4bn of last week's £5bn welfare savings in the public finances.