Rachel Reeves’ Budget shambles causes chaos in the Commons

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A message to future Chancellors: if you want to your Budget to come across as slick and measured, make sure the run-up is as shambolic as possible.

It’s not unusual for measures in the Budget to be floated by the Treasury beforehand, sometimes to test the public’s reaction and sometimes to allow the ideas to sink in so they’re not so shocking.

But this year the briefing was on a different level, to the extent that headlines were made when one proposal we shouldn’t have known about yet – a rise in income tax – was jettisoned two weeks before Rachel Reeves was meant to announce it in the Commons.

And that’s before we arrive at the mother of all Budget calamities, perfec