A Budget meant to project discipline has instead exposed confusion, mistrust and political instability around the Chancellor, eroding confidence in both markets and her own party, says Helen Thomas

It is never a good omen when the Chancellor becomes the story rather than the Budget they’ve delivered. What began as a carefully choreographed fiscal event, designed to placate Labour’s left while soothing financial markets, has instead spiralled into a row over transparency, trust and basic competence. The Office for Budget Responsibility’s revelation of an improving fiscal picture as their forecasts progressed has detonated the narrative on which the Chancellor built her case for tax rises, spending restraint and tough talk on fiscal discipline.

For markets, which had been told repeatedly that OBR assessments shaped every major Treasury decision, the episode raises an awkward question: if the black hole didn’t exist, why did the government behave as though it did? Investors now face the implication that political positioning, not economic reality, was steering the ship. Far from outsourcing economic decisions to the independent technocrats, the Chancellor has brought policy in-house in order to firefight internal party divisions.

And yet her management of party........

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