Starmer and Reeves have put party before country

Rachel Reeves would have been forgiven for shedding a tear again when she stood up to deliver her Budget speech.

- JOHN RENTOUL CHIEF POLITICAL COMMENTATOR

The theatre of the occasion had been destroyed by the accidental publication an hour earlier of the Office for Budget Responsibility report.

She must have felt that this was the last straw, after she had already lost the chance to pull the biggest ever rabbit from the parliamentary hat when the decision not to raise income tax rates was leaked to the Financial Times two weeks ago.

Imagine the surprise if she had told a noisy Commons, expecting a manifesto-busting income-tax rise, that she had decided that she did not need to do it after all. Instead, she was shouting into a chamber in which MPs had already read about the main Budget measures on their phones.

It was not her fault, but it was unfortunate for a chancellor so often accused of blaming others that she had to begin her statement by - however justifiably - blaming the OBR. After that awkward start, though, it was a strong speech, and much of the Budget might have been described as “playing the best possible game with a very bad hand”.

But no presentational tricks could conceal the reality, which is that Reeves has chosen party before country. She and Keir Starmer have put saving their careers before the national interest. Instead of trying to save money on welfare spending they have increased it, and have raised taxes to pay for it.