Labour MP Liam Byrne’s note telling his successor at the Treasury “I’m afraid there is no money left” almost never saw the light of day. When it was found, the Liberal Democrats considered it a private joke between politicians, but were overruled by their Conservative coalition partners who immediately saw its propaganda value. The missive was duly published in 2010 and then wheeled out by the Tories for the next 14 years.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves has spent her three weeks in office hunting for the modern version of that note, all the while knowing no one would be daft enough to write one. Like so many of her political generation, she is borrowing directly from the George Osborne playbook: talk up the emergency and present yourself as the expert who can fix it. But when Osborne established the fiscal watchdog, the Office for Budget Responsibility, he set up a Pooh Bear trap for his successors. If the numbers are out in the open, how can Reeves possibly feign horror when she gets into office?

Judge and jury in this particular political courtroom appears to be Paul Johnson, the director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, who said “I don’t think it’s really very credible at all” to claim that Labour in opposition wouldn’t have known what to expect. Not true, argue Labour insiders. While from outside government, people can know the OBR’s tax revenue forecasts and their gap with government spending plans, there is no way of knowing the cost overruns of government spending commitments. That’s why transport projects with spiralling costs are among the first on the list to be scrapped – gone are works on the A303, the Stonehenge tunnel and the A27 – Arundel bypass.

Reeves is........

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