What does Labour mean by its Budget ? It is an odd question to have to ask days after the Chancellor delivered her second budget. At this point it might be assumed that a government with a large majority, settled into the realities of power, would be able to tell us something about what it wants to do – and what it does not.

All budgets are exercises in giving with one hand to take with the other, shaping these pros and cons around a political project . The bigger problem for the Reeves and Starmer enterprise is that this major set piece event left voters and investors vastly unclear about the shape of the final product.

Was it a budget after which middle England was supposed to be grateful for having dodged income tax rises ?

That doesn’t work: the freezing of tax thresholds stor

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