For some time, the Budget on 26 November has been looking as if it might be Rachel Reeves’ final fling before she is pulled away from the levers of the UK economy. But if so, it appears she may be preparing to go out in style. According to a report in the Financial Times , she is planning, yet again, to raise taxes while using as an excuse a supposed black hole left behind by the Tories.

The Office for Budgetary Responsibility (OBR) has warned the Chancellor that the productivity estimates it has been using for its economic forecasts have been too optimistic. Rather than growing at 1.1 per cent in coming years, it seems this will be downgraded to growth of 1.0 per cent or 0.9 per cent.

Reeves inherited neither a healthy state of public finances nor an economy which was doing well

The

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