Battle begins: inside Rishi Sunak’s plan to take on Labour

When David Laws moved in as chief secretary to the Treasury in 2010, he found a note from his predecessor Liam Byrne saying: ‘I’m afraid there is no money.’ It was the most famous parting gift in British political history. What was meant as a joke (Byrne had thought his friend Philip Hammond would get the job) quickly became the coalition government’s most effective weapon against the opposition: proof that Labour could not be trusted with the public finances. Today, Labour wants to level the same accusation against the Conservatives.

‘On the first day [in power], we need to land the message very quickly that the finances are in a very bad state and it is all because of the Tories,’ says one Keir Starmer aide. ‘We would need to make them wear it. Then show it’s even worse than they let on.’ That should not be hard to do. Welfare costs are surging, with 5,000 new sickness benefit claims a day, the NHS is in a state of near-collapse and the tax burden has already been pushed to a post-war high.

As a result, Starmer plans to lower expectations and establish from day one who is to blame for the lack of room for manoeuvre when it comes to public spending.