Labour insiders are increasingly restive over the ‘dire’ comms plan around the Budget. Reeves’s team cancelled a scheduled TV interview at no notice with GB News and Times Radio – basic poor comms handling. Meanwhile, her major defensive line is that she wouldn’t want to repeat her own budget. Needs some work…
Elsewhere, the financial media has been neglected after a series of ‘curious’ briefing decisions – including a string of denials which subsequently proved to be true when the Budget documents were released. The biggest was HMT spinners getting the expected tax rises wrong by £5 billion…
UPDATE: Reeves has also declined to appear on Martin Lewis’ Money Show this evening to defend her budget.
Speaking at his speech on how to achieve “progressive capitalism” Wes Streeting fired a dig and Andy Burnham:
“Bond markets are not bond villains and fiscal rules matter.”