Preparing for the spending review, George Osborne must have written two speeches: his own, and the one he expected John McDonnell to make. He then clearly went through that Shadow Chancellor speech, ensuring that he’d crossed off every reasonably large line of attack. Tax credits cuts: reversed. More funding for social care and mental health (the latter in the form of a tax rise). No cuts to the police budget. As he announced this last, the Chancellor clearly enjoyed crushing poor Andy Burnham under his heel by pointing out that the Shadow Home Secretary had recommended a 10 per cent cut.
George Osborne was clearly keen to make John McDonnell’s job the most difficult job of any difficult Shadow Chancellor response to an economic statement. But nothing could have prepared him for the response that John McDonnell actually gave.
If you take into account that a response to any economic statement is difficult and even perhaps if you decide to be generous and accept that McDonnell has never done this before, you might have felt that most of the statement was acceptably weak given the circumstances.
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