I’m writing this on Budget Day, which is a little bit like Christmas for those us who lie awake at night thinking about both economics and politics. The opportunity to deliver a fresh vision to grow the economy is an enormous privilege. It’s a job that demands vision, rigorous research, and a firm understanding of both people’s lives and the levers available to Governments to reduce pressures, create opportunities and boost confidence.

Sadly my initial reaction is that the Chancellor (that’s Jeremy Hunt by the way, for those who understandably lost track when the Conservatives served us four No 11 residents in four months) failed to deliver the ambitious, inspiring agenda we really needed. As Keir Starmer responded, we got a mere “sticking plaster, for a country that needs major surgery”.

The Tory proposals leave Britain stuck in the waiting room, falling behind our competitors, poorer than France, much poorer than Germany. On the current trajectory, Britain will be poorer than Poland by 2030 after years of Conservative stagnation.

The Chancellor blamed all their difficulties on the war in Ukraine. Of course this has had a global economic impact, and of course Ukrainian people deserve our full and unwavering solidarity, but to excuse Britain’s struggling economy on this basis? It’s like the dog ate the Chancellor’s homework. All of our European neighbours and economic comparators are affected by the impact of the invasion, but Britain is fairing uniquely weakly, against a host of indicators.

I was particularly surprised to here the Chancellor refer to the Government’s industrial strategy; as the author of Labour’s own vigorous strategy, and as someone who meets with different sectors day in day out, I genuinely was not aware they had one. It will come as news to most business leaders too.

All the headlines in this Budget- from a long overdue expansion of free childcare hours, to extending the cap on home fuel bills a little- were issues Labour had been leading the way on, and even then, their fudged details may ultimately let people down. This is a Government that has run out of steam.

This was a Tory Budget, and therefore, there were surprise freebies for the rich. Hunt’s proposed changes to pensions mean someone with a £2 million pension pot will pay £275,000 less in tax; another handout for the richest 1%, at a time when we allegedly cannot afford decent wages for nurses and junior doctors. We needed a Budget that gave hope to all. Sadly we are still waiting.