If Tory MPs weren’t comfortable with Comrade Sunak’s £21 billion cost of living package announced last week, they should check out the bizarre through-the-looking-glass situation on Twitter this morning, as John McDonnell defends the Tory chancellor’s spending plans against attacks from Labour that it might cause greater inflation. Last night The Guardian was briefed that Labour is urging the OBR to assess the impact of Rishi’s spending splurge. It’s a fair criticism, just not from Labour who a week ago were hailing Rishinomics as proof they are “winning the battle of ideas”…

Owen Jones then led the charge pointing out how this opposition for the sake of opposition by Rachel Reeves paints Labour into a massive corner on spending. Jones tweeted, “This is reheated George Osborne-ism, not progressive politics.” Following in his steps this morning was Jeremy Corbyn’s former policy chief Andrew Fisher, who responded to the Guardian article with “WTAF?!”, while pointing out the Shadow Treasury Secretary, who wrote to the OBR, himself said Labour “welcomes [Rishi’s] announcements”. Tying himself into a knot the Scouts would be proud of…

Now John McDonnell – a man who, as the PM often reminds the Commons, was sacked by Ken Livingstone for being too left wing – has also leapt to the chancellor’s defence. McDonnell tweets:

If this is part of the Labour attempt to demonstrate it’s a more responsible manager of public spending, what happens if the OBR says Sunak’s deal is inflationary? Whatever the focus groups are saying, are we seriously going to attack the Tories for spending more on the poor? https://t.co/Mxhm2BxpjM

— John McDonnell MP (@johnmcdonnellMP) May 31, 2022

Looks like both the Tories and Labour don’t have a clue what either they, or their opponents, stand for anymore…