Rishi Sunak finally conceded on Wednesday the nation has been failed by 10 years of Tory austerity.
The Chancellor’s decision to splash the cash was forced in part by the coronavirus crisis.
Yet his spree was also an acknowledgement Labour was right to argue you need investment to stimulate growth and protect jobs.
We withhold judgement on whether his package of measures to help Britain weather the Covid-19 threat is sufficient.
While support for staff and small firms is welcome there was not nearly enough to help the self-employed and gig economy workers.
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It was also troubling that the Chancellor had nothing to say on social care, childcare or the funding crisis in local government.
The extra investment in the NHS and further education was long overdue, as was the money to remove cladding from high-rise buildings.
So many measures announced yesterday should and could have come years earlier.
The Chancellor spoke of levelling up yet this remained a fundamentally Tory Budget in many respects. Even the Treasury’s own analysis showed the losers were the poorest 10%.
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Mr Sunak has to deliver on his ambitious plans. Voters have heard talk of getting things done – now they want to see action that will improve communities, hospitals and schools.
To listen to the Chancellor, you would not believe his party had been in power since 2010.
For all his emphasis on this being a Budget by a new government at the start of the new decade, he cannot wash his hands of responsibility for what happened in the past 10 years.
This was a confident debut but the Chancellor yet he knows his plans could hit the rocks of coronavirus and Brexit.
Yeah, I dough – it’s great news that Little Britain star Matt Lucas will co-host TV hit Great British Bake Off .
Contestants will be vying to have the comic say: “I want that one.”
And can we expect to see the only souffle in the village?
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