The price is right for NHS funding but Streeting may still lose out in the long rus

If Rachel Reeves did the spending review like a game show, she could invite her cabinet colleagues to “come on down” the catwalk between the two red lines in the Commons, to music and strobe lights, to take their seats on the front bench.

- JOHN RENTOUL CHIEF POLITICAL COMMENTATOR

She could announce the winners of the competition for public funding over the next three years in reverse order, with David Lammy, the foreign secretary – who has lost a big chunk of his foreign aid budget – going first, followed by Heidi Alexander, the transport secretary, and Steve Reed, environment.

The last to be summoned, as the Abba soundtrack switches from “Money, Money, Money” to “The Winner Takes It All”, would be Wes Streeting, the health secretary, who has been allocated spending increases of 2.8 per cent a year more than inflation over the three years from next year to 2029.

Arms in the air, in a sequinned jacket, as glitter falls from the ceiling, Streeting would take his place next to John Healey, the defence secretary, at the top of the line of winners and losers.

Sadly, the announcement of spending plans for the rest of this parliament will be less showbiz. Reeves will try to generate a bit of excitement, and maybe even some waving of order papers, by spinning the big and welcome increase in capital investment – although she has already cannibalised some of her good news stories with her transport infrastructure announcement last week and the go-ahead for Sizewell C nuclear power station yesterday.