Trust and the Treasury

The run-up to the budget was costly; the missed opportunity even more expensive

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Rachel Reeves had two main tasks last week: to ensure the government's political survival and find a way to fund its agenda without losing the support of business and investors. For two days it looked as if she might have pulled it off. Then the head of the Office for Budget Responsibility published a letter showing Reeves had presented a budget built on a narrative of a large fiscal black hole, when the story was rather different.

To be fair, the chancellor has not personally been using the language of black holes. True, too, she has made the right judgment in seeking to raise enough revenues to see off the threat of a debt market crisis: stability is the prerequisite to growth.