The more PM defends Reeves ...the more terrified she looks

THE more Keir Starmer defends his Chancellor, the more terrified she appears.

- HARVEY JONES

Taxpayers may have breathed a sigh of relief yesterday when the Prime Minister ruled out an emergency Budget this spring. If they believed him.

That's a big "if", given his knack for doubling down on declarations that fail to survive the first contact with reality.

Tory leader Kemi Badenoch seized on this fragility, hammering the premier during Prime Minister's Questions on Rachel Reeves's stewardship of the economy.

She didn't hold back, accusing Labour of saddling the UK with "fewer jobs, lower growth and higher borrowing costs".

Badenoch knew exactly how Starmer would defend himself. The same way he always does.

By blaming Tory profligacy and seeking refuge in that £22billion black hole they allegedly left behind.

Badenoch virtually begged him not to go there again. Or pin Labour's errors on "global factors". Starmer predictably did both. First, the global economy took its share of the blame.

Then he dived straight into his black hole.