Henry Zeffman: Andy Burnham and his chancellor have a battle on their hands as the Budget approaches
The Budget is only six weeks away and the economy is undoubtedly the biggest challenge facing the prime minister.
It is only 42 days until John Healey's first Budget, and there is increasingly apparent concern at all levels of the government and Labour Party about how that Budget can – or, as it may prove, cannot – substantiate Burnham's rhetoric about offering the biggest change in British politics in 40 years.
Much of the tricky economic environment, yes, is driven by global factors including the persistence, and to some degree worsening, of the conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine.
But there are clearly domestic factors particular to Britain, and on that front it was very striking to hear the former Bank of England chief economist Andy Haldane telling LBC on Tuesday that without signs of cuts to public spending "the markets now suspect that this is a traditional tax and spend socialist government with better TikTok videos".
So in that sense it was not a reduction in public spending, just a reprioritisation. And in any case, the former cabinet minister Darren Jones criticised Burnham at the time on the grounds that the government had not yet allocated the money for digital ID.