It feels like the most torturous build up to any budget in recent history.

After a slow and painful climb up the mountain of manifesto-busting income tax increases - a hasty and inglorious retreat.

There's been endless speculation about the two-child benefit cap, tax thresholds, mansion taxes, exit taxes, energy bills, and pension schemes. Now, finally, we're just days away.

Politics Live: Reeves's 'mansplaining' claims are just a 'smokescreen', says shadow chancellor

Image: Chancellor Rachel Reeves. Pic: Reuters

Chancellor Rachel Reeves has set out her final stall in an opinion piece for The Sunday Times, in a bid to reclaim the iron mantle of fiscal discipline which has become somewhat skew-whiff amid the confusion.

She argues that increasing public debt is not a Labour virt

See Full Page