Rishi Sunak may see himself as a future prime minister but this budget confirmed he is very much Boris Johnson’s chancellor.
Rumours about ructions between the pair have gripped Westminster for months. Sunak, who told last year’s Tory conference his party had a moral duty to fix the public finances, was known to be queasy about the government’s national insurance increase, for example.
But ultimately Sunak was left with little choice. Johnson has long been sceptical about the idea of austerity and is keen to have something to show so-called red wall voters in exchange for their support in the 2019 general election.
Fortuitously for both men, the independent Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) significantly upgraded its forecasts for the
Read more on theguardian.com