It was not supposed to be like this. Almost a week on from the Budget the big story is not about the measures to reduce the cost of living or spark economic growth, but rather a focus on infighting officials and questions surrounding the integrity of the Chancellor, Rachel Reeves.
Working out who said what to whom and who knew what when is keeping the Westminster bubble busy. It’s now evident that there has been a wholesale breakdown in relations over a period of months between the Treasury and the Office for Budget Responsibility.
The leaking of Budget details ahead of the Chancellor’s speech as well as the OBR’s reluctance to take into account the government’s measures, such as planning reform in their Productivity Review, are now inextricably confused in the media and in public perceptions as cause and consequence.
A YouGov poll out today makes plain the real problem. Only 8% of the country thinks the budget will leave the country as a whole better off, while just 2% think it will leave them and their family better off.
The Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer, tried yesterday to turn the ship around in his speech by focusing on the cost-of-living measures in the Budget. But that’s not what’s making any of the headlines.
Listening to radio phone-ins yesterday, what struck me is when politicians across the political spectrum throw accusations of lying at each other, all that huffing and puffing serves to erode what little trust remains in the entire system of democracy and government.
Integrity is hard to define and once lost, very difficult to regain. Ominous rumblings about the future of the Chancellor and Prime Minister from unnamed Labour sources continue to fill newspaper columns.
“Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive.”