The Budget that buys time

That does not mean an empty Red Box. Healey is pitching a plan for business and “bloody-minded entrepreneurs”, with lighter reporting requirements, start-up incentives and rates relief for smaller high-street firms. It is a striking change of tone after Labour raised employer National Insurance and expanded employment law.

Households are set to get the same treatment: energy support, probably a fuel-duty reprieve and details of help to buy successor Your First Home, all visible fixes to immediate pressures. But with Your First Home’s income and property-price caps reportedly already being reconsidered, Healey may also find himself fixing policy on the move.

The fiscal backdrop explains the caution. Britain’s debt has topped £3tn, borrowing costs are near pre-financial-crisis levels and estimates of Healey’s headroom range from £8.5bn to £20bn. He must also find £4.7bn for defence, with little appetite for tax rises or spending cuts.

This is therefore an exercise in buying time: steady the markets, offer visible help and postpone the hardest choices. It may protect Burnham’s momentum, but every promise deferred adds to the eventual bill. Sooner or later, the Government must show how it will pay for the country it has promised.