The Chancellor addressed her backbench troops last night, ahead of Wednesday’s Budget. Rachel Reeves’ remarks sought to impress upon her colleagues the importance of unity amid a likely onslaught of criticism. ‘Politics is a team sport,’ she said. ‘We have to stick together if we’re going to deliver the change, and get the second term that we want.’ She stressed that her Budget is a ‘package’, which will contain both good and bad choices. ‘It’s not a pick and mix – you can’t say you like the cola bottles but you don’t like the fruit salads. It comes together as a whole.’ That can be read as a warning to Labour MPs who have a propensity to publicly criticise unpopular individual policies.

Reeves’ speech also centred on her usual rogues’ gallery of villains. She attacked the ‘incredibly des

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