Rachel Reeves has boxed herself into a corner and left the UK government exposed to future fiscal shocks, economists warned, after the Chancellor of the Exchequer backtracked on plans to break Labour’s election manifesto by raising income tax.
Although the decision was taken after the Office for Budget Responsibility handed her a less-bad-than-expected fiscal forecast, the volte-face nonetheless followed a week of party infighting and public concerns that put the politics of the budget front and center.