The public finances continue to be in better and better shape despite Brexit approaching, with the latest ONS figures showing borrowing in the financial year-to-date at its lowest level since 2001. This puts the Government on track to come in under its OBR target of £25.5 billion net borrowing for the year. This is a step in the right direction but it is still £25.5 billion added to the national debt of almost £1.8 trillion – there is no excuse for any government to turn its back on fiscal responsibility…

Excluding state-owned banks, public net borrowing actually recorded a January surplus of £14.9 billion, the largest since records began in 1993. It was fuelled by record high tax takings, with self-assessed Income Tax and Capital Gains Tax January receipts both at their highest levels since records began. Record tax takings is hardly what you’d expect from a party that has genuinely been “taken over by the right” as Anna Soubry likes to claim…